“We expect a further deterioration of the epidemiological situation,” Mia Blazevic from the Epidemiology Service of the Institute of Public Health of the Federation of BiH told BHRT.
The reason for this is that the delta coronavirus strain currently dominates. As she told Dnevnik 2, a higher number of new infections was expected.
According to the warnings of the World Health Organization, the delta strain causes a larger number of hospitalizations, and the number of people included in the vaccination is very low and unsatisfactory, said Blazevic.
“It is difficult that we will be able to vaccinate a sufficient percentage of citizens in this wave, we can only talk about some control of the epidemic. The hospital capacities will be full and we hope that there will be no overload because there was none in the previous wave, “she said.
The FBiH Public Health Institute has decided that the second dose of Astra Zeneca vaccine will be given four weeks after the first, because they say they want citizens to be immunized as soon as possible.
The delta strain of the coronavirus has been detected in Republika Srpska, and the details regarding the detection of this strain will be published tomorrow, the RS Institute of Public Health announced.
“On the occasion of detecting the delta strain of the coronavirus in Republika Srpska, after the last sequencing, a press conference will be held tomorrow at 11 am in the amphitheater of the Institute of Public Health of Republika Srpska,” the Institute said.
The first cases of the delta strain in BiH were discovered at the beginning of July, two in the municipality of Ljubuski and one in Citluk, but no new cases have been confirmed in health institutions in both entities since then.
The Institute of Public Health of the Federation of BiH (FBiH)confirmed that they were not reported new results of sequencing after July, and mentioned that 137.653 people got infected with COVID-19 in this BiH entity from the beginning of the pandemic to August 23rd this year, while 5.570 died of this virus.
Also, the Institute for Public Health of the Republika Srpska (RS) confirmed that currently, they do not have a confirmed delta variant in this BiH entity, but that there is a gradual increase in the number of newly infected and hospitalizedpeople.
“If all epidemiological measures are not respected and if citizens are not vaccinated in the planned scope, for which a sufficient amount of vaccines is provided, we will continue to mark the increase in the number of infected people,” said Nina Rodic Vukmir, head of the Epidemiology Service at the Institute for Epidemiology of the Public Health Institute of RS.
She warned that the increase in the number of patients is a consequence of insufficient compliance with epidemiological measures, contact with persons with sources of infection, and these are patients who became infected either abroad or in this area.
“On this occasion, we call on all citizens to be vaccinated as soon as possible, in order to stop this trend of increasing the number of infected people,” stated Rodic Vukmir.
At least 211.689 people have been infected in BiH since the beginning of the pandemic, while 9.770 people have died as a result of COVID-19, according to the state Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) estimated in a report published in late July that the delta variant of coronavirus would make up to 90 percent of all SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the EU by the end of August, Buka writes.
E.Dz.
