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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

First coronavirus death in Serbia

Belgrade, 20 March 2020

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated at a press conference in the Serbian government that coronavirus has claimed today the first life in Serbia.

Brnabic said that it is a 59-year-old patient from Kikinda who was being treated at the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Novi Sad.

On behalf of the Serbian government and the President of the Republic she expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and paid tribute to the doctors and the medical staff who fought fiercely for his life.

The Prime Minister added that a total of 135 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been registered until 18.00 today, which is 17 more since the last report at 8.00 this morning.

She announced that as of tomorrow at 20.00 public transport in Serbia will stop operating until further notice and as of Sunday at 20.00, restaurants, cafés and shopping malls will be shut.

At this moment the danger is too big and the pressure on doctors and nurses too high for us to be thinking about the financial side of shutting cafés and shopping malls, Brnabic said, adding that food delivery will continue because despite suspending public transport, passenger, car, private and taxi transport can still operate.

The restrictive measures have been adopted in order to protect health of the nation, to reduce the number of casualties to a minimum in this war and to give a chance to the health system, Brnabic said and added that that is why the ban on movement is becoming stricter.

She said that we have entered the third week of the fight against coronavirus and that the most difficult 24 hours are behind us, but that many more, even more difficult days than today are ahead of us.

Brnabic explained that in addition to the Torlak Institute, the testing for coronavirus will also be done at the Infectious Diseases Clinic of Serbia and the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina and warned citizens once more to take the government measures seriously.

She also warned that our health system, regardless of the number of ventilators and the protective equipment, will not be able to cope with the spread of the virus if we do not reduce pressure on it in the coming days.

Brnabic announced that a large shipment of aid from China arrives tomorrow, that our biggest airplane Airbus A330 flew to China and that it is expected to return with a large shipment of medical devices and protective equipment.

We are happiest about the fact that experts from China will also arrive, who fought coronavirus there and who will help our specialists, the Prime Minister said.

She called on employers to enable their employees to work from home and where not possible, to provide transport for their employees. She instructed them to contact the government through the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

We will try to buffer the negative impact on the economy as much as possible, Brnabic said, but also noted that no one will get totally ruined just because they do less business in this situation.