Two hospitals revert to COVID system, emergency situations in several places

Korona, bolnica, pacijenti, zaštitno odelo, kreveti, covid 19, korona virus,
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The epidemiological situation in Serbia has deteriorated steadily over the past few weeks to the point that two Belgrade hospitals are being reserved for COVID patients and several towns and cities across the country are considering stricter measures such as shorter opening hours for cafes and restaurants and bans on gatherings.

Government pandemic crisis response team member Dr Branislav Tiodorovic said on Thursday that places like Novi Pazar and Tutin in the west of the country and the city of Kragujevac in central Serbia were facing emergency situations. Under Serbian law, an emergency situation gives local authorities greater powers to deal with the crisis.

“Kragujevac has already requested approval but the other two have not and they’re relaxed even though the hospital in Novi Pazar is full,” he said and warned that the public are not behaving responsibly and do not want stricter measures imposed.

The CEO of the Batajnica COVID hospital Dr Tatjana Adzic Vukicevic went even farther saying that this wave of the coronavirus pandemic is the deadliest yet. She said that her hospital was full to capacity with the patients exhibiting the worst symptoms possible. “Get vaccinated, I don’t see why you’re waiting,” she said in an appeal to the public.

Two major hospitals in Belgrade are also being returned to the COVID health care system to deal with the rising numbers of new coronavirus cases. The Serbian state TV (RTS) said that the Dragisa Misovic clinical center and the KBC Bezanijska Kosa hospital would be receiving only COVID patients. Both hospitals were part of the COVID system and reverted to standard operation in May.

In Novi Pazar, the city emergency situations body banned family festivities in restaurants and cafes as of September 13 after ordering all high schools to change to online classes. The local hospital reported two COVID deaths between Wednesday and Thursday and 24 more hospitalized patients.