The first wave of COVID-19 infections is yet to hit Bosnia but since it is reaching the country later than it did other countries, authorities had more time to prepare, the country’s security minister told N1 on Tuesday.
“We have deblocked the Council of Ministers thanks to the virus,” Minister Fahrudin Radoncic said about the state government, referring to the frequent political bickering within top institutions in Bosnia.
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“We can see great enthusiasm to fight this crisis,” he added.
Radoncic explained that this is the first time that Bosnia has ever declared a state of emergency and that it is important that the entire country has a unified set of measures provided by medical experts. He also said that Bosnia must start criminal proceedings against certain people.
“If someone has AIDS and spreads the disease intentionally, they can be sentenced up to 10 years in prison,” he said, suggesting the same should be applied to COVID-19.
About 300 people died only on Tuesday in Italy, he said, adding that “death can come to Bosnia.”
“The point is to delay the crisis,” he added.
Bosnia’s biggest problem is the country’s fragmentation, he said, but stressed that politics must play no part in managing the current crisis – “since we are fighting to save lives.”
Border police lack medical equipment and all citizens arriving in the country will have to go into self-isolation.
Radoncic said that certain private clinics have offered their capacities for the fight against the virus and the head of the Sarajevo University Clinical Centre suggested that infected patients could be placed into the newly built state prison which has not yet been opened.
He urged citizens to support the work of experts and be disciplined, adding that it would be a “catastrophe” if the virus would find its way into hospitals.
