Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

No reason yet to close kindergartens, schools, faculties

Belgrade, 13 March 2020

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated today at an extraordinary press conference that despite the concerns of citizens over the coronavirus, there is no reason to close kindergartens, schools and faculties and underlined that this is the opinion of medical experts.

Brnabic noted that this is a very sensitive topic and that she spoke about it with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who insisted that the issue be examined once more.

The opinion of experts is that there is no expert justification or expert grounds to close kindergartens, schools and faculties at this moment and that this would be counterproductive, the Prime Minister said.

Brnabic stated that in association with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the preparation of home-based school learning and via digital textbooks has begun and added that a meeting has been held with the Radio Television of Serbia on holding some of the classes on the public television channels.

She announced that the Serbian government will pass the decision today that football matches in the country be played without the audience.

This was my suggestion and in consultation with experts, the agreement was reached not to allow the audience at football matches, the Prime Minister explained.

She added that the opinion of experts is that this is more of a psychological question than an issue with expert justification given that football matches are held in the open, but that the government will nonetheless pass that decision.

Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, a doctor at the Public Health Institute “Milan Jovanovic Batut” underlined that all decisions regarding the coronavirus are being made on the basis of expert analysis and the data available.

Head of the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Belgrade Public Health Institute Predrag Kon said that all persons who have been in contact with those infected are undergoing medical examination.

He added that unrelated cases might be expected, in which case the way and plan of work would be changed completely and all heavy respiratory infections or symptoms would be examined and everyone would be tested regardless of whether they travelled somewhere or not.