Weekend lockdown ended at 6 am, one new measure coming into force, Crisis HQ meeting tomorrow

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At exactly 6 o'clock, rigorous measures concerning the opening hours of shopping centers and hospitality establishment ended, but one new measure is just coming into force.

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The measures that were in force from Saturday at noon until today at 6 am meant that only grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations could be open, while scheduled sporting events went without audiences; however, theaters and cinemas did not cancel their shows, with distancing measures in place.

Winter resorts saw the most restrictive measures - From Saturday at noon until today, only cafes and restaurants located in hotels could stay open, only for their own guests.

Starting today, high school students will completely switch to online classes.

These measures were adopted on Friday, at a time when the number of new coronavirus cases was around 4,000 per day, as hospitals operated on the verge of their capacities. Unfortunately, another hospital is expected to switch from regular to the Covid regime of work today, which, according to experts, is a big blow to the healthcare system that has been fighting the pandemic for a year now, and especially for institutions that have been switching to the Covid mode several times.

During this weekend, the numbers were slightly lower, so the latest figures showed 3,042 newly infected people, but as many as 171 patients were connected to ventilators. According to the latest report, 20 more people died.

As Dr. Predrag Kon said on Friday, we should now see the results of the measures that were in force during the weekend before this past one, when cafes and shopping centers closed after 2 pm. We have to wait between 7 and 10 days for the effect of the measures from the previous weekend.

However, a new meeting of the Crisis HQ has been scheduled for as early as tomorrow. Even stricter measures will be asked for, if the existing ones fail to give results, epidemiologist Dr. Branislav Tiodorovic said yesterday.

"If there is no progress, we will ask on Tuesday for absolutely everything we are asking to be respected, and those are stricter measures. We had a very difficult meeting (on Friday), we had to go into serious conversations, for people to understand that the situation is serious. We have a problem of hospitals in Belgrade being either full or are about to be filled, we have to think about what to do next. We insisted on rigorous control of measures with the application of the criminal law for those who don't respect them, and that especially refers to those organizing parties. Every local community must be responsible for its situation," said the epidemiologist.

Otherwise, during last week, there was even talk of a curfew, i.e., something that would have a similar effect - a complete ban on contacts, but no consensus was reached on that during the session of the Crisis HQ on Friday.

(Telegraf.rs)