In the light of the ongoing developments concerning the coronavirus spread in Bosnia, competent authorities of the country's both semi-autonomous regions, Federation (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), on Thursday passed new measures, aimed at the restriction of the movement of citizens and their outdoor activities.

Igor Radojicic, the Mayor of Banja Luka, the RS administrative centre, announced that all kindergartens in the city will be shut down, which comes days after the authorities passed a decision to temporarily close the schools in the whole region.

All catering businesses, the city authorities decided, will work until 6 pm.

“It has been assessed that this is something that will last for a while and it is realistic to assume that there will be more registered infections. Preventive measures are exceptionally important because they can reduce bad consequences. We must go through this crisis together, there is no room for panic,” said the mayor.

The decision comes hours after the healthcare authorities in RS confirmed that four more patients tested positive for the COVID-19, bringing the total of those infected in the whole country 11, of which eight were confirmed in RS only. Other four have been registered in the country's other half.

Meanwhile, authorities in four more cantons in the FBiH entity moved to a temporary shutdown of all schools on their territories.

The northwestern Una-Sana Canton, the Central-Bosnia Canton, the southern Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and the eastern Bosna-Podrinje Canton will keep the schools closed for 15 days. With three other cantons, RS and Brcko District in the north, which closed the schools a day ago and earlier, this makes the schools on the almost full territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina temporarily shut down.

Also, a travel ban for all passengers from Italy, some provinces of China, South Korea and Iran officially came into effect in Bosnia on Wednesday.

Neighbouring Serbia and Croatia also recorded new infection cases over the past two days, which moved the two countries’ authorities to introduce new measures preventing the further spread of the virus.

Among other steps, Serbia decided to close several border crossings with Bosnia and Croatia as of Thursday early morning.