BELGRADE, April 8. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus cases in Serbia has risen by 219 over the past 24 hours reaching 2,666, the death toll has climbed to 65, the country’s Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday.
Four people have died over the past 24 hours, another 219 cases have been confirmed. As of Tuesday, 2,447 coronavirus cases were recorded throughout the country, 61 fatalities were reported.
A total of 1,135 people are in hospitals, 112 patients have been connected to ventilators. The fatality rate is 2.43%, the median age of deceased individuals is 64.6 years. Forty-eight of them are men, 17 are women.
According to the Ministry of Health, there has been a substantial increase in the number of health professionals who had contracted the virus. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic earlier said many military servicemen who ensured the state of emergency by controlling borders and hospitals had tested positive for coronavirus. According to the country’s Interior Ministry, the first coronavirus cases have been confirmed among police officers.
Serbia has closed its borders, declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. The parliamentary elections have been cancelled, intercity bus and rail services have been suspended. People aged over 65 are required to stay indoors.
Belgrade earlier asked for Moscow’s assistance to fight the epidemic. On April 3-4, Russian aircraft transported to Serbia 87 Russian military servicemen, including military medics, virologists of the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, special medical equipment, protective gear and military equipment. Russian specialists began working in the capital and a number of other cities across the country.
Pandemic
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,400,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 82,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 300,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.