"Calmer period, if measures weren't lifted, Covid numbers would've been in double digits even before summer"

Photo: Tanjug/Tara Radovanovic

The epidemic of coronavirus is slowly subsiding, and the virus has mutated so that the Omicron variant, which is dominant in the world, gives a milder clinical picture.

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In that wave, many European countries lifted almost all anti-epidemic measures, while Spain is considering stopping publishing the number of new daily cases, as some countries, such as Hungary, do not announce the numbers on weekends but from Monday to Friday.

When will the practice of publishing data on new cases on a daily basis stop in Serbia?

Crisis HQ members say Serbia will not stop counting people infected with coronavirus, because they are under obligation to do so by the Law on Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases, but that it is possible that statistics will not be published daily when the number drops to double digits.

This does not mean that the epidemic will be declared over, but that it is taking an endemic course, that the disease is becoming more predictable. Public health institutes will continue to monitor the movement of the virus, record the number of infected people, but for citizens it will no longer be of special importance because the epidemic is under control, the healthcare system is not subordinated to Covid patients. Those with knowledge in the matter believe that the last big wave of the epidemic (caused by the Omicron strain), which started around the New Year in Serbia, is slowly subsiding, that many have become infected and thus naturally or by vaccination a high level of collective immunity has been achieved. There will be more new variants of the virus, smaller waves, but not with so many infected. During January, Serbia broke all records, reporting almost 20,000 new daily cases.

We are entering a calmer period

Epidemiologist and member of the Crisis HQ Branislav Tiodorovic says that Serbia is slowly entering a calmer period, that he expects the epidemiological situation to stabilize in 10 to 15 days - in early April. The fact that some countries are considering stopping publishing the number of infected people on a daily basis will not happen in Serbia yet, at least until that number is in double digits.

"We can only think about that when we reach the double-digit number of people infected on a daily basis, when the infection becomes sporadic. The current figures are not to be underestimated. If the basic measures remained in force - mandatory masks indoors, distancing, disinfection, if they had been applied and well controlled, the number of new daily cases would have been in the double-digits and lower before the summer. Then we could say that it is not necessary to publish the numbers every day, but on a weekly basis, or as Hungarians do, not to publish them on weekends," Tiodorovic told Euronews Serbia.

He added that the end of the pandemic is still far away.

He recalled that the end can only be announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), but that will not happen as long as there are infected people in any part of the world.

"The end of the pandemic is far away. The virus will not be lost, we must get used to living with it. The microorganism is adapting and has adapted to humans, we must also get used to it," Tiodorovic concluded.

When the epidemic is declared to be over

Director of the Public Health Institute of Vojvodina and member of the Crisis HQ Vladimir Petrovic says that the epidemiological situation in Serbia will be monitored as long as there is need for it, as long as "the Covid system is in force when it comes to Serbian government decisions."

"We will do our job as required," he stated.

(Telegraf.rs)