Authorities have no plan to impose lockdown and hopefully there will be no mandatory vaccination either, assistant health minister Goran Cerkez told N1, speaking about the situation with pandemic in Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity in context of stricter public health measures that are being introduced across Europe.

The Federation will, however, as of December 20 introduce the so-called ‘vaccinated, tested, recovered’ criteria for the employees in health and social sectors as well public administration, Cerkez confirmed earlier.

The authorities in the other half of the country, Republika Srpska entity, have also said they are considering the idea of introducing similar measures but it has not been confirmed yet.

“The epidemic in the FBiH is under control,” said Cerkez, adding that the next meeting of the COVID crisis response team is likely to discuss a set of new measure which will stay within the ‘vaccinated, tested, recovered’ criteria.

The measures would be applied in ski resorts this winter as well as public outdoor events such as New Year's celebrations.

According to Cerkez, these measures will hopefully give results like they did in Italy and Portugal, and Bosnia's entity will not have to impose stricter measures such as mandatory vaccination.

“We believe this will be sufficient and that people should be given a choice. At this moment it is not necessary to insist on vaccination but to provide safety to all citizens and reduce the virus spread,” he stressed.

“We are in charge of protecting the lives of citizens. Introducing the ‘vaccinated, tested, recovered’ measures is a prevention,” added Cerkez.