Source::Xinhuanet
BELGRADE,
Faced with a rising number of new coronavirus cases, the government of Serbia decided on Tuesday to introduce stricter prevention measures. From Wednesday, all businesses will have to remain permanently closed, with the exception of food stores, pharmacies and gas stations.
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, who announced the decision after the session of Serbia's crisis response team, explained that the new measures will remain in force until next Monday, when the government will decide whether to extend them. "We need to slow down life in Serbia to see the number of new infections stagnate," she said, according to the government's press release.
The country has already had similar measures in force on several weekends, and has often restricted the working hours of businesses, but the daily number of new cases has been peaking above 4,000 since the beginning of March. In the past 24 hours, Serbia has confirmed another 5,201 infections by testing 17,782 people, bringing the overall number of confirmed cases to 526,112 and the death toll to 4,778.
Currently, 4,671 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, 211 of them are on ventilators. Serbia, a country of around seven million people, started its vaccination campaign in mid-December, 2020. To date, around 800,000 people have received two vaccine doses, mostly of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
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