The price of commercial tests for coronavirus from now on is 150 BAM and there are plenty of them for everyone who wants to be tested, as it was confirmed by the director of the Institute of Public Health of Republika Srpska, Branislav Zeljkovic.
Zeljkovic emphasized that the decision to reduce the cost of commercial tests at the Institute was adopted by the board of directors and is implemented from Wednesday.
So far, commercial tests have costed 200 BAM, and a total of 3.700 have been completed, Avaz news portal reports.
Countries in our region and Europe are lowering the prices of commercial PCR tests in order to make it easier for citizens to check their health, but also travel, while the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not yet considering any reductions.
PCR test in the Federation of BiH entity currently costs 215 BAM
BiH citizens can be tested in public and private institutions, but only a negative PCR test from one of the laboratories authorized for these tests is recognized for crossing the border, namely at the Laboratory for Molecular Genetic and Forensic Research of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo, the Institute of Public Health of the RS, the University Clinical Hospital Mostar, the Clinical Center in Tuzla and the Cantonal Hospital Zenica.
PCR testing is also possible in several private clinics in BiH at a cost of approximately 230 BAM.
Muhamed Smajlovic, dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo, who actually procures commercial PCR tests, told Klix.ba that everything depends on the Federal Ministry of Health of BiH.
“If they decide that the price should be lowered, we will lower it,” Smajlovic commented.
On the other hand, already in neighboring Croatia a few days ago, the price of the PCR test was lowered to approximately 500 kuna, or 130 BAM for two target sequences, and 698 kuna or 181 BAM for three target sequences.
Croatian Minister of Health Vili Beroš said that there is a possibility that other even cheaper PCR tests will appear on the market, but that the authorities must not neglect the relevance and quality of testing.
“Our task is to enable testing with those tests that are relevant, which have the best ratio of price and diagnostic accuracy,” Beros said a few days ago.
Commercial PCR testing is significantly cheaper in Serbia than in BiH, and amounts to between 6,000 and 8,200 dinars, or between 100 and 135 BAM.
