The World Health Organisation (WHO) donated 11 tons of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to health care institutions in Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity, on Tuesday.

The head of the WHO Office in Bosnia, Viktor Olsavszky, said during the handover ceremony, that this donation includes about half a million surgical masks, but that one should not be deceived that it will be enough. If current trends continue this will be enough for about three months.

“Our message is the that, in addition to everything that health institutions do, institutions in charge of health, Bosnian citizens must respect certain measures to protect themselves and help health institutions and other institutions to protect the citizens,” he said.

He said that there was an increase in the number of cases in Bosnia, the Balkan region, as well as in the Euroregion, especially in Central Asia.

Alen Seranic, the Health Minister of this semi-autonomous entity, thanked the representatives of the WHO for the valuable donation.

“The PPE is the greatest part of the equipment we use in this time of the epidemic,” Seranic said.

He assessed the epidemiological situation in the last two to three weeks as unfavourable due to the increase in the number of infected patients.