The Covid-19 coronavirus is now a pandemic, since 200.000 people in 120 countries were infected. Around 8.000 people have lost their lives and 81.000 have been cured. In 6 Western Balkans countries have announce closing their borders. So far, these countries’ governments have been trying to prevent the spreading of the virus through drastic measures for their citizens, informs Portalb.mk.
But, can the coronavirus be fought only with drastic measures?
The Western Balkans countries have taken a series of measures, starting from closing of their borders to limiting the citizens’ movements in order to prevent the spreading of the virus. Even though there are discussions and in certain cases there is opposition, most of the measures are implemented by the citizens. But the unknown menace, the lack of vaccine, the unpredictability how long it can last and the general lack of information is turning the whole situation into agony.
Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Hercegovina stated that they have all possible capacities to deal with the situation. On 16th of March, the World Health Organization criticized the countries regarding the measures taken and requested they should do more coronavirus testing.
“The most effective way to prevent the infections and to save lives is to cut the transmission chain. In order to do this, testing has to be carried out and isolation has to follow this. We have a simple message for all countries: testing, testing, testing” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The transparency is considered to be a major problem for the Balkan countries and not just these governments regarding the quantities of medications and instruments in the health system to prevent the spread of the virus.
Several days ago, it was reported that doctors in Albania have been using masks with expired dates since 2011. The Ministry of Health reacted by stating that the expiration date decreases the masks’ efficiency, but it won’t present a risk. The lack of beds or respiratory equipment presnets a problem even for Clinics for Infection Diseases in other countries. Kosovo has around 130. Macedonia hasn’t announced any official number of available beds and Serbia and Montenegro haven’t announced the same. Bosnia announce it has 200 bends at its disposal.
Until now, apart from Kosovo, none of the other countries had planned to purchase tests that provide results in a short notice. While the citizens are in-between drastic measures and fear, the lack of information received from official representatives can also be as damaging as false news.