Doctor Kisic explains whether restrictive measures will be introduced in all of Serbia

Photo: Tanjug/Sava Radovanovic

Introducing restrictive protective measures due to coronavirus in the entire territory of Serbia does not make sense, epidemiologist Darija Kisic Tepavcevic said today and stressed that the epidemiological situation in some parts of the country is extremely stable and that no new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed there for days and weeks.

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Kisic said that the epidemiological situation in the entire country is being monitored intensively and that about two thirds of coronavirus reported cases are in Belgrade, while the rest are registered in Novi Pazar, Tutin, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Uzice.

"Introducing measures in the entire territory of Serbia does not make sense because in certain parts of the country there is no need for that, since citizens in those areas respected (previous) measures," Kisic told TV Pink.

As she said, local self-governments make appropriate decisions because they have the best insight into what is happening and which measures would be most effective.

Kisic remarked that almost half of the newly infected in the territory of Belgrade say they don't know where they became infected, while, as she says, the situation is much clearer in smaller towns and most patients are reporting spending time in closed spaces with a larger number of people, mostly for celebrations.

"No one could become infected unless they came in direct contact with an infected person, it's not enough to just pass by that person, you must be near them for at least 15 minutes without taking any preventive measures," she said.

When asked about the situation in Novi Pazar and media reports that there had not been enough medical equipment in that town and that the situation was critical, Kisic said that unverified and inaccurate information brought additional unrest and that this was not needed because then we spend a lot of energy explaining that this is not true.

"What is good in all this is that the eyes of the entire public and the state leadership are focused on Novi Pazar. Now, with additional measures, everything seems more transparent in order to show not that something had been covered up, but to focus on the problem and solve it."

She said that what happened in Novi Pazar is similar to what happed in many countries at a point when the healthcare capacity was smaller than the needs of the population.

She added that epidemiological research showed that a certain number of people in Novi Pazar became infected because a large number of people came there from abroad to spend holidays and attend celebrations, and that many who had symptoms delayed seeing a doctor until they developed severe pneumonia.

"There were queues for examinations, the hospital was full, but teams from Belgrade and Kragujevac came and reorganized the way the hospital works, which is the most important thing," said Kisic.

(Telegraf.rs)