At yesterday’s press conference, members of the state’s coronavirus crisis team pointed out that the latest results regarding the contagion were quite good and that the measures and behaviour of citizens were yielding the expected results.
However, they also underlined that that did not mean that the work was completed because the epidemic could return if we become too relaxed. The director of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Goran Stevanovic, added that one cannot expect a relaxation of the measures for at least another two weeks, while Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said that we would have to live with the virus for quite some time, as well as continue practising social distancing, washing our hands frequently and wearing protective gloves and masks.
In Serbia, 3,281 people have been tested since the last report, with 224 of them testing positive. In the last 24 hours, four people have died.
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The director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic, Goran Stevanovic, estimated that the accomplished results were quite good and said that the implemented measures and the effort of the entire society had produced results.
The number of people who tested positive, he said, has been slowly but surely falling, but the work is far from over. “We need to continue to be careful and adhere to all measures, and we all need to cooperate to keep up this trend. When the number of patients falls to really low numbers, we can say for sure that our work is done. We still mustn’t forget that the epidemic can return,” he warned.
The percentage of new patients, he explained, is not the only criterion on the basis of which decisions are made on eventual mitigation of measures. ”We must consider the absolute numbers, the number of ill per each region, the number of patients with severe clinical symptoms, and how many of them require intensive care or respiration,” Stevanovic went on to say.
Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar also expressed his satisfaction with the latest data, saying that they show that the measures introduced by the State and the citizen behaviour did produce results.
He also said that no decision has been made yet regarding the curfew for the coming weekend and that people will be told what measures will be implemented this coming Saturday and Sunday.
“I only ask for your understanding. There are many factors to consider in making a decision (about the curfew). We have to wait for the analysis of the tests, to see how many serious cases we have, how many people are in intensive care, how many in makeshift hospitals, how many have been released from hospitals…There are many factors that go into this. It is only on the basis of these results that further decisions will be made,” Loncar concluded.
(N1, 22.04.2020)
This post is also available in: Italiano