The World Bank has approved a 100-million-dollar loan to Serbia to help it suppressing the coronavirus pandemic, the Beta news agency reported.
The loan will be used for ’12 fast testing points for people coming to Serbia.’ Two will be at the Belgrade and Nis airports, while the remaining ten at other border crossings.
Besides, the money will help to raise the testing capacity in the country to 9,000 instead of the current 7,000 a day after two regional laboratories are built in the northern city of Novi Sad and the city of Kragujevac, which will test 1,000 samples daily, or some 130 tests per 100,000 people.
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The Bank will also help Serbia to secure additional protective gear, to link the testing labs with an electronic system and improve the diagnostic, hospitals’ IRs and isolation wards.
“Serbia has managed to flatten the epidemic curve in the first COVID-19 wave, but that doesn’t mean it could relax, but should work to improve the readiness for the next waves,” Stephen Ndegwa, the World Bank Country Manager for Serbia.
Thanks to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Project, Serbia will “improve the monitoring system and epidemiological capacity for detecting and confirming cases of the disease,” the World Bank said in a statement.
(Danas, 26.05.2020)
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