"It's calm in Serbia now, but third coronavirus peak is certain either in November or December"

Dr. Radmilo Jankovic / Photo: Private archive

The director of the Clinic for Anesthesia and Intensive Care of the Clinical Center Nis, Professor Radmilo Jankovic, says that the coronavirus epidemic in Serbia is currently calming down, but that it is certain we will not avoid the third peak that awaits us at the end of the year.

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Jankovic told RTS that the situation in the south of Serbia is calmer than a month ago.

"At the moment, we have 39 patients in the Clinical Center in Nis, eight of whom are in intensive care. Five are still on mechanical ventilation. These are mostly patients who were admitted a few weeks ago. We have patients who have been on mechanical ventilation for more than a month," Jankovic explained.

He said that it might be too pessimistic to say that slowly, some trends are already being noticed, which might indicate that the spread of the virus is picking up pace again.

Jankovic said that the situation in other Covid hospitals in the south of Serbia, in Vranje, Leskovac and Krusevac, is stable.

He believes that the Clinical Center in Nis is individually the hospital that bore the greatest burden, especially the intensive care unit because all serious patients from the whole of southeastern Serbia were treated there.

Jankovic also that they had more than 1,000 patients went through intensive care.

"It seems to me that the first peak was harder for everyone because it may have caught us a little by surprise. Better organization in the second peak enabled us to treat mostly the most serious and patients who needed the most care. Medium-to-serious patients were kept in local hospitals, which gave us the opportunity to save many human lives," Dr. Jankovic pointed out.

He stressed that we will not avoid the third peak of the epidemic and that the only question is whether it will happen in November or December.

"I think that our entire healthcare system, especially in the second peak, has shown a certain stability, strength and mutual solidarity," Dr. Jankovic pointed out.

He thinks that it is problematic that many people, especially high school students, will report to respiratory clinics with symptoms of respiratory diseases.

"The question is what of that will be coronavirus, and what will be the common cold or flu, but it's realistic that the number of cases will be increasing," Jankovic explained.

(Telegraf.rs)