Although no one in Serbia has officially declared the end of the pandemic, a short walk along Njegoševa Street from Kralja Milan to Kalenić, then back across Bulevar do Taš and Resavski to SKC, you will get the impression that "measures to prevent and combat the infectious disease covid 19" have been put out strength. Thus, in none of the numerous cafes and restaurants on Cvetni trg, the waiters and bartenders, neither indoors, nor in the gardens, even around the door, pro forma, do not wear protective masks, just in case a communal inspector appears. It's as if neither the owners of the bar nor the employees are afraid that some inspector or policeman might wander in and write a paper report.
In fact, the entire Njegoševa Street returned from an extraordinary state to a regular state by some unspoken decree. No one takes care of the physical distance between tables and chairs in bars, cafes are full in the evenings, people socialize, hug, kiss, say hello. Only here and there you can see someone with a protective mask. One girl working in an ice cream shop regularly wears it over her mouth and nose, another around her neck, and customers don't accidentally. It is similar in "Mal Kalenić", a store with selected fruits and vegetables at a slightly higher price, where the saleswoman wears a mask as prescribed, but has given up on letting customers back from the door without a mask.
And the saleswoman at the newspaper and cigarette store in Resavska says that she simply cannot deal with people who enter without protective masks. He says that, as was the case a month or two ago, no one waits in front of the store, where according to the current regulations, there should not be more than two people, but enters as soon as anyone arrives and squeezes in with other customers in those few square meters. . The same is the case with the nearby bakeries, and in the convenience store, no employee wears a protective mask anymore, while mandatory masks are neatly written on the window. Only one waiter in one of the cafes in Resavska wears a protective mask around his neck, he knows, he says, that the pandemic measures are still in force and how expensive it is when law enforcement catches you for not complying with them.
A FALSE HINT OF FREEDOM
In order to check to what extent everything has become relaxed regarding the corona, your reporter packed his mask in his pocket and headed to Idea in the basement of "Beograđanka". The security man at the entrance didn't even blink. In the store, most did wear masks, but there were also a lot of customers without face protection. In the rows in front of the cash registers, no one even tried to keep their distance, and one cashier did not have a mask at all.
It must be admitted that the feeling was strangely good, the way without that irritating substance on the face, as if the world was back to normal, passing between the racks and communicating with the sellers; a false hint of freedom, which was taken away from us by the previous year marked by many restrictive measures, withdrawal into the narrowest social circles, uncertainty, fear, illness and death.
Although as part of the work task, not wearing a mask in Idea had something rebellious in it, it exuded childish defiance, a demonstrative non-adjustment to the prevailing abnormality. If Serbia is hit by a new wave of mass infection, and epidemiologists warn that this is inevitable, it will not be easy for the government to tighten the pandemic measures again after this summer flurry. What this can lead to was seen last summer in the outbreak of violence on the streets of Belgrade.
At the bus stop in front of "Beograđanka", another confirmation of the evaporation of anti-pandemic measures in the summer heat: many passengers in GSP ride without protective masks, the drivers also do not wear them, there are no controllers. After about twenty minutes of observing the trolleybuses and buses in Kralja Milan, it can be said that the thesis that only young people who are confident in their health do not proudly wear masks does not stand, because approximately the same number of visibly older passengers breathes in the hot air in city transport with full lungs through uncovered mouths and noses. .
MESSAGE OF FULL STADIUMS
It is normal that people wished for normality. The depressing last year, during which countries were locked down and people withdrew into themselves, seemed to definitely erase this summer filled with hope and the need to fulfill the wishes that were denied to us in 2020. Across Europe, mass vaccinations began, anti-pandemic measures were relaxed, tourist destinations began to open, tourists began to check their travel documents, search for favorable arrangements and pack their bags.
photo: lenka pavlovićWHAT A PANDEMIC: Cafe in Belgrade
The message that life has defeated the pandemic also spread from the European Football Championship, where the Italian national team defeated England at Wembley in front of sixty thousand fans - they chanted, sang, mourned, celebrated as in the past, when the first association with the term "corona" was beer, and among the Germanists, Goethe's favorite actress, Corona Schroeter. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer called the uncontrolled filling of the stadium "irresponsible", and there were less polite reactions.
Everyone who watched this year's Wimbledon finals, where Novak Djokovic defeated the Italian Matteo Berretini in front of full stands, could get the impression that the world is back to normal and became the best tennis player of all time.
And still: regardless of all the measures to which the visitors of Exit are subjected, the public absorbs the images of tens of thousands of young people huddled together swaying to the rhythm of the music. Guča is just following, and at the Petrovdan Fair in Obrenovac everything is roaring with thousands of visitors without any visible control of whether anti-pandemic measures are being implemented.
All this has the effect that the need for a normal life among, it seems, the dominant part of the citizens of Serbia prevails over reason and caution, so Serbia in the meantime is sliding from the very top to the back of Europe in terms of the number of vaccinated people. People's behavior is so relaxed, and there is no control to such an extent that it was necessary to check whether "measures to prevent and suppress the infectious disease covid 19" are still in force.
A WASTED 62 MINUTES
It turns out that it is not at all simple. A simple answer to the simple and burning question "what anti-pandemic measures are currently in force in Serbia" cannot be obtained by searching the Internet. Or at least your reporter wasn't able to find it. The search leads to measures that were once passed, but no confirmation is found whether they are still in force. This can only be concluded from the absence of information on the cancellation of previous measures.
Not even on the official portal of the Republic of Serbia covid19.rs it simply does not say which measures are currently in force. There is therefore a box called "Contact center for all information about Covid-19" and the phone number 19819. When you dial this number, you can hear a recording with everything and anything, including how to donate blood plasma, sign up for volunteer work or instructions that you should wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least twenty seconds, or that you should cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or upper arm if you cough or sneeze. You are then given the option to press the number 2 key if you want to be connected to someone at the Ministry of Health who has answers to all your questions about the corona virus. I guess what measures against the corona virus are currently in force.
We pressed the key with the number 2. The recorded voice informs us that we are the second in line to be connected to the operator. Soon we were first in line to be matched with someone. After 62 minutes the connection was disconnected, no one answered.
The only search left is in the "Official Gazette". The portal makes things easier paragraph.rs where you can easily reach the section "Regulation on measures to prevent and combat the infectious disease Covid-19" (See box). There we find the regulation in which Article 6 states that everything that almost no one adheres to is mandatory neither in cafes and restaurants, nor in shops, nor in public transport, nor in elevators of multi-storey buildings - that it is mandatory to wear protective masks indoors, keeping your distance…
Considering the extent to which no one complies with these regulations and the extent to which there is no control, at least on a sample in the center of Belgrade, somehow there remains a doubt that we did not accidentally miss some regulation that cancels the previous regulations on the mandatory wearing of protective masks.
AND FROM TODAY, RIGOROUS CONTROLS
This doubt as to whether some measures are in effect is finally dispelled by the assistant minister of health for inspection affairs, Goran Stamenković, who on Tuesday, July 13, declares that "today" the authorities will begin "rigorous control of compliance with all anti-epidemic measures". The question is why today and not all the time. It somehow comes to him as if the traffic police completely stop checking the current speed limit regulations, and then someone from the Ministry of the Interior solemnly threatens that "from today" the controls will start and that those who drive 200 per hour on the highway will be watched.
Stamenković specified that the focus will be on respecting the number of users of services on a certain area - compliance with the order of the Minister of Health that each facility must have information about the area, about the number of possible users in relation to square footage, in relation to the possibility and provision of services, and that is to "take special care of the distance and wearing protective masks". He also appealed to the citizens' awareness, called on them to be careful and responsible.
In any case, even after Stamenković's announcement of "rigorous control" on Cvetni trg, not a single waiter put a protective mask on his face, nor were the tables separated.
AH, THOSE IRRESPONSIBLE YOUTHS
Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said that doctors are very worried about non-compliance with anti-pandemic measures, that she is also very worried and that "the president and I monitor the numbers for two hours, we see how it is in municipalities and cities. The safest situation is in those local governments with the largest number of vaccinated". She had announced a meeting of the Crisis Staff for the fight against Covid-19 for Tuesday, which was actually held on Tuesday.
After the meeting of the Crisis Staff, the Minister of Labour, Employment of Veterans and Social Affairs, Darija Kisić Tepavčević, determined that 49 percent of the adult population in Serbia has been fully vaccinated so far, which is not enough. First of all, she appealed to young people to get vaccinated, that "they must understand that it is a social responsibility and that it must be shown that young people are responsible people who protect their environment", and that the situation is still stable, but that it can easily to get out of control and that the only way to protect ourselves is to get vaccinated. According to Dr. Kisić Tepavčević, only 17,42 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 30 have been vaccinated in Serbia.
Minister Kisić Tepavčević did not say what the state authorities did to convince the "young people" to get vaccinated. It is as if this government is not aware that the time has long passed when it was enough for Comrade Tito to invite the youth to go on a work action and they responded en masse.
She did not, at least not publicly, refer to what kind of message is being sent to the "young people" about the dangers of the pandemic, when the state authorities allow everyone who steps on the streets of Belgrade without any sanctions to violate all measures to suppress covid 19, when concerts are held and folk festivities, and nightclubs and rafts open their doors wide for the "young". Apart from the fact that we will not stick to the law like a drunkard, such behavior of state authorities, both young and old, can lead to only one conclusion: when they allow all this, it must be that the corona is not so terrible.
The inconsistent behavior of government representatives regarding the pandemic greatly contributes to the confusion of citizens regarding vaccinations as well. It would be consistent either that "measures for the prevention and suppression of the infectious disease covid 19" are put out of force, or that their implementation is rigorously controlled. This situation is senseless.
("Sl. herald of the RS" br. 151/2020, 152/2020, 153/2020, 156/2020, 158/2020, 1/2021, 17/2021, 19/2021, 22/2021, 29/2021, 34/2021, 48/2021, 54/2021, 59/2021, 60/2021, 64/I 2021 69/2021)
Article 6
During their stay in public places indoors, citizens are obliged to, in order to prevent the spread of the infectious disease COVID-19, wear protective masks and maintain a mutual distance of at least two meters between two people who do not live in the same household.
In public places in open space, if it is not possible to maintain a distance between two people of at least two meters (in front of shops, pharmacies, at bus and other stops, etc.), wearing protective masks is mandatory.
In public road and rail passenger transport, it is mandatory to wear protective masks.
Parents of minor children or children with special needs, i.e. their guardians, are obliged to ensure that children older than four years wear a protective mask in the cases referred to in para. 1-3. of this article.
Article 8
Legal entities and entrepreneurs (employers) who perform activities in the field of retail trade and services in the field of hospitality, which include the sale of food and beverages, can perform that activity, i.e. the provision of services, i.e. serve users indoors and in the area of organized gardens outdoors - with the application of preventive measures prescribed by this regulation and established by the employer's act, in accordance with the law and regulations in the field of occupational safety and health.
Legal entities and entrepreneurs from paragraph 1 of this article are obliged, in relation to employees and users of services, to apply all preventive measures against the impact on the safety and health of employees and users of services, especially those related to the prevention of the spread of the infectious disease COVID- 19 (organization of the work process that ensures the maintenance of physical distance, i.e. the mutual distance between two people of at least two meters, mandatory disinfection of furniture, machines, tools and devices for work after the service provided to each individual user, mandatory use of protective equipment, i.e. masks by employees - for providing services outdoors, as well as additional measures of a limited number of people in the room, and in the case of a distance of less than two meters between users, providing services with the application of a glass, plastic or similar barrier, mandatory disinfection of rooms and floors, mandatory use of protective funds, i.e. masks and from service users - for the provision of services in a closed space), and in that sense adopt a special plan for the implementation of measures, as an integral part of the act from paragraph 1 of this article....
Article 9
... Legal entities and entrepreneurs who carry out retail trade are obliged to ensure that in facilities where retail trade is carried out, i.e. in facilities where goods are sold or services are provided in shopping centers or similar facilities where activities in the field of trade are carried out retail, which includes the sale of goods and the provision of services in premises that are entered from a larger closed space, do not enter, that is, that persons who do not wear personal protective masks do not stay in them.
Legal entities and entrepreneurs from paragraph 3 of this article are obliged to post a notice in a visible place that the entry or stay of persons without personal protective masks is not allowed.
Legal entities and entrepreneurs from paragraph 3 of this article are obliged to designate a person who is responsible for compliance with the measures of wearing a personal protective mask (corona redar), with the exception of those legal entities and entrepreneurs who have up to three employees.
Article 10
When holding public cultural and artistic events in a closed space, a maximum of 500 visitors are allowed at the same time, so that every other place to sit is free and with the mandatory wearing of protective masks by visitors, as well as employees participating in the organization of the event.
When a public cultural and artistic event is held in an open space, the presence of a maximum of 500 visitors is allowed at the same time, so that a distance of at least two meters is maintained between visitors, with the mandatory wearing of protective masks by visitors, as well as employees participating in the organization of the event...
