

Airport staff at Debrecen in Hungary checking passengers returning from Milan, February, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zsolt Czegledi

As numbers of coronavirus cases rise throughout Europe, Serbia has confirmed its first – a 43-year-old male who has often been to Hungary.

Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar said the man was currently quarantined in a hospital in Subotica, near the Hungarian border, where he had reported himself after feeling ill. His condition is not seen as alarming.

“The results came in an hour ago and he is in Subotica in quarantine, Samples were taken from all persons he was in contact with,” Loncar told a press conference on Friday.

Predrag Kon, head of the Infectious Diseases Unit of the City Institute of Public Health in Belgrade, said it was good that the patient had isolated himself – but he expected other cases to arise, and the health system would be under pressure.

“It can be expected that other cases will arise elsewhere, especially in the capital … The message is: we continue our lives as before, there is no change, and some parts of the health care system will be severely burdened simply because it is necessary to trace all those contacts. In this case, fortunately, because of his self-isolation and his independent decision to quarantine, we do not have such a huge number [of cases],” Kon said.

In the region, Croatia confirmed its 11th case of the coronavirus on Friday. Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday confirmed two cases in the Serb-led entity of Republika Srpska – a man who works in Italy and his child. Republika Srpska Health Minister Alen Seranic said on Friday that 210 persons in RS are under enhanced surveillance, 118 of them in Banja Luka, and 52 in house isolation.

North Macedonia has confirmed one case, a female since cured.

There are no confirmed cases in Montenegro, although 34 people are under surveillance and authorities there have suspended flights to Bologna and Milan because of outbreaks in northern Italy. Romania has reported seven confirmed cases, three of them now cured.

Worldwide, over 95,000 cases have been reported, about 80,000 of which are in China. Most others are in South Korea, Iran and Italy. Numbers elsewhere are small but rising. Globally, about 3,200 people have died.

This article was changed on March 6, 2020, to add information about the number of people under enhanced surveillance in Republika Srpska.