Edin Forto, the Prime Minister of the Canton Sarajevo (CS), stated yesterday that the control will be strengthened, but there will be no tightening of restriction measures, despite the worsening of the epidemiological situation in this canton.
Due to the growing number of people infected with coronavirus in CS, a special session of the Government of CS and the Crisis Staff was held yesterday, and Prime Minister Forto decided to address the media after the meeting.
“We are stepping up the control of current measures, we are increasing the capacity of health institutions, we are allowing the inspection to have more workers and the police to control the violation of determined measures. We are not introducing additional measures, but I am really worried because it feels like people are too relaxed. We are tired of all these measures in the past year, but we have to endure and go through this. We do not see an end to the pandemic at this point. We are the only country whose authorities do not work in order to procure vaccines,” Forto pointed out.
The Prime Minister of CS said that several conclusions were adopted yesterday to avoid the health system collapse in the CS. They are listed below:
The Ministry of Health will issue instructions to health institutions in the function of mobilizing its available staff into COVID teams, we are expanding our capacities so they can fight the pandemic;
The Health Insurance Institute will engage all resources to increase the number of tests, and private institutions will be allowed to help as well;
The Public Health Institute is imposed to submit daily analyzes to the Crisis Staff and the Ministry when it comes to the sources of infection. We want a special implementation of measures, where the emphasis is placed on the centers where the infection occurs the most;
The Directorate for Inspection Affairs of CS is ordered to engage all its staff to implement measures following the Law on Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases and it is necessary to reallocate all capacities for that purpose;
An urgent amendment to the Law on Inspections is needed, to temporarily close facilities that violate measures ”;
Wherever it recognize the stay of a larger number of persons than allowed, the Directorate for Inspection Affairs is allowed to impose a ban measure for 10 days to all those who were there, due to the suspicion that they are infected ”;
We impose the Crisis Staff to return competencies to police officers for sanctioning violators of measures.
Prime Minister Forto once again called on the citizens to be patient and called them to respect the set measures.
“I call on the business community of catering companies who barely survive to respect the measures because if there is an increase of infected, we will have to tighten up measures once again. Let us act according to the current situation, ” Forto said at the press conference after the special session of the Government of CS.
Haris Vranic, the CS Minister of Health, said that there was an increase in the number of newly infected people on a quite small sample of tested people and that no one could know for sure what was the reason for the increase in the number of covid-19 patients. Hospital capacities are being filled and that is why, as he added, it is necessary to react as soon as possible. He emphasized that the situation in CS, despite the increase in the number of infected, is not so dramatic.
Vranić added that the centers of the infection were closed spaces – coffee rooms, bars, large shopping malls, more precisely shops, and cafes within them. This is why the introduction of ”covid supervisors” in shopping malls will be one of the next measures.
“In my opinion, the reason for the increase in the number of infected people is relaxation among our citizens who believe that the pandemic is coming to an end. It is not even close to the end, especially since we do not have vaccines yet. Also, you must know that vaccination does not mean the end of the pandemic, ” Vranic added, BHRT writes.
