The onset of Covid-19 in the Balkans rages as an informal storm sweeping the peninsula of Aimos and from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains to the Rhodope Mountains.
Cases of virus carriers are increasing with geometric progress, as are the death toll, while the already weak health systems of the Balkan countries are operating almost to their limits, forcing governments to constantly take new restrictive measures avoiding a massive increase in cases in their entire populations.
By T.C.
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Photo by the website www.ert.gr
At the same time, serious political turbulence is taking place, such as in Belgrade (Serbia) where Serbs took to the streets and squares protesting furiously against the Serbian Prime Minister accusing him of lying to them about the real health situation in the country.
In Northern Macedonia and during their election speeches, the leader of the Opposition denounced Zoran Zaev-the President of the Government for not careing about the health of the citizens.
In Bulgaria, protests continue unabated, provoking competition between the Government and the Principal Opposition over who will get the most stringent restrictive protection measures.
Covid-19 response measures in the Balkans
The measures to counter with Covid-19 that the governments of the Balkan countries are trying to impose with a view to limiting its spread are
- Restoring the use of a mask indoors
- Banning mass gatherings
- Local lockdowns in cities and areas where the virus is spreading rapidly.
- Non-imposition of generalized lockdown.
The mistakes of governments
The political world in the Balkan countries was in a hurry to relax the strict measures they had taken from the outset. Almost all Balkan countries (Croatia, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia) have had or have elections. Prohibitions and quarantine in the Balkans cannot be implemented.
After Aleksandar Vucic’s election victory in Belgrade (Serbia), and the end of the re-election celebrations of his party’s supporters with his government’s political leaders, two government ministers and the Serbian Parliament President tested positive for the virus.
In Montenegro, the virus was brought by massive football fans who had visited Serbia to watch a football match.
In Bulgaria, while measures to protect the mass population were in place, a football match (CSKA-Lokomotiv) was allowed with the participation of fans, without any protective measures.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers returned to their Balkan homelands from countries such as Italy, Britain, Germany, where Covid-19 broke.
Balkan governments should implement more drastic measures such as border closures and mass testing on their entire population to directly diagnose the actual number of cases of virus carriers and isolate them from the rest of the population. Otherwise things can lead to uncontrollable situations.
