Montenegrin health authorities decided on Friday, a month after the introduction of strict anti-epidemic rules, to bring life almost back to normal by lifting most of the restrictive measures.

As of Saturday, hospitality establishments will be allowed to stay open until 11 p.m., shops and commercial businesses will be open until 10 p.m., and schools, kindergartens and educational and cultural institution will reopen, a press conference heard.

Fitness studios, shopping centres and betting shops will also reopen.

The curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. will remain in force, as will the ban on travel between municipalities at the weekend and the obligation to wear protective face masks outdoors and indoors.

The tight epidemiological measures were introduced in Montenegro in mid-March and they yielded results, so in a month, the number of active cases has halved and there were about 3,500 infections in Montenegro on Friday.

The number of daily new infections has seen a marked drop, falling below 200 in recent days.

Vaccination in Montenegro started on 20 February with donated Sputnik V vaccines, sent to Podgorica by Serbia, and in the meantime, a donation of 30,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China has arrived in Montenegro, as have 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca received through the Covax programme.

By the end of the month, Montenegrin health authorities expect another 200,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine and the arrival of new doses of AstraZeneca, when the process of mass vaccination will begin.

To date, just over eight percent of the Montenegrin population have been vaccinated. Since the start of the pandemic, 95,000 people have contracted coronavirus, or 15% of the country's population.

There have been 1,412 coronavirus-related deaths.