

A man wearing a protective face mask mask. Photo: EPA/Alexander Becher.

The government of Republika Srpska decided at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday that all schools must close from Wednesday until March 30 as part of efforts to deal with the coronavirus.

All public gatherings during this period have also been prohibited, including concerts, theatre plays and sporting events.

The Republika Srpska government will contact the state-level Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Border Police to ask for the tightening of entry controls on people from countries affected by the virus.

All health institutions in Republika Srpska have been told to draw up contingency plans.

Five cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Bosnia and Herzegovina so far – four in Republika Srpska and one in the country’s other entity, the Bosniak- and Croat-dominated Federation.

All five patients have relatively mild symptoms.

In Republika Srpska, all the cases are related to two Bosnian citizens who returned from Italy in a car together at the end of February.

All four are being treated in the University Clinical Centre Republika Srpska in Banja Luka.

Based on the evaluation of epidemiologists in Republika Srpska, health inspectors have so far placed 117 people in home isolation for 14 days while their conditions are checked.

Those who do not comply with the measures imposed by the inspectors can be fined from 100 to 300 euros.

The case in the Federation entity was confirmed on Monday evening. The patient is a woman in the town of Zenica who recently returned from Lombardy in Italy, where she was visiting relatives.

Two of the five people infected are children – a boy attending the eighth grade of an elementary school in Banja Luka, and a girl attending high school in Celinac, a small town not far from Banja Luka.