Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem falling within the competence of the Government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem does not fall within our competence, we will forward your message to the competent institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Most optimal model for attending school next week

Belgrade, 7 August 2020

Deputy Director of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia Darija Kisic Tepavcevic pointed out that at today's working meeting with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development Mladen Sarcevic, the challenges related to coronavirus infections for the beginning of the new school year were discussed.

At the regular press conference of the COVID-19 crisis response team, Kisic Tepavcevic pointed out that the meeting referred to making the most optimal model for attending school classes for elementary and high school students.

We have taken into account the results of all research so far when it comes to COVID-19, and we have also considered the experiences of all countries that organized classes during the pandemic of this disease, she said.

According to her, we have clear guidelines, we are guided exclusively by the principles of evidence-based medicine, with a few elements left around the technical organization of teaching that need to be harmonised.

Kisic Tepavcevic said that at the beginning of next week, the public will be informed about the ways of teaching in the next school year.

She warned that it is very certain that the coronavirus and the flu virus will be present during the winter period, stating that the general prevention measures are the same.

At the moment, 424 people are in isolation in Kosovo-Metohija, while 89 patients are hospitalised, Kisic Tepavcevic pointed out and added that in the last 24 hours in the southern Serbian province, no one has died.

The deputy director of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia said that eight private laboratories had submitted the appropriate documentation for obtaining the right to test, and the decision was being finalised.

According to her, the degree of collective immunity that could prevent the epidemic spread of the disease is 50 to 60 percent, but the actual number is currently far below that and is around 10 percent.

Provincial Secretary for Health Zoran Gojkovic emphasized that Belgrade and Novi Sad are still the two cities with the largest number of actively ill and newly discovered cases of coronavirus infection.

Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of KCS Goran Stevanovic said that 156 people had been examined in that institution in the past 24 hours, 30 of whom were in a condition that required hospitalisation.

He pointed out that, considering that there were more than 300 examinations a day before, the current number is much smaller.