Serbia announces first coronavirus case: ministry

By : AFP

Date: 6 March 2020 1:44pm WAT

Thousands of followers of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro gather for a mass prayer and protest march against a new law in capital Podgorica on February 29, 2020. - Priests and their followers have been taking to the streets for weeks, accusing the government of planning to steal their holy relics and handsome assets through a new law that could turn many of their churches into state property. The government, however, insists it is only trying to claim what is rightfully Montenegrin: the hundreds of monasteries that are still run by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), even though Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in 2006. The controversy has brought sensitive debates about identity, nationality and religion to the surface in Montenegro, a tight-knit country of 620,000 wedged in between rugged mountains and the Adriatic sea. (Photo by Savo PRELEVIC / AFP)

The first case of coronavirus in Serbia has been diagnosed in a man who had been in Hungary, the country’s health minister announced on Friday.

“The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Serbia. It is a 43-year-old man from Subotica (north) who recently stayed in Hungary, in Budapest,” said Zlatibor Loncar at a press conference.

The man is in solitary confinement at the Subotica hospital and his health is good, the minister said.

The people with whom he came into contact have been tested.

“There is no need to panic, you have to behave in accordance with the authorities’ recommendations,” added the minister who said the patient behaved “responsibly”.

Serbia is the fourth country comprising the former Yugoslavia to have reported cases of infection following Croatia (11 cases), North Macedonia (one case) and Bosnia (two cases).

The virus, which now affects around 90 countries and territories, has infected more than 98,000 people worldwide and left nearly 3,400 people dead.

At 0900 GMT Friday, Europe had registered 5,701 cases with 161 deaths, all but 13 of those in Italy.