site.btaCOVID-19 in the Balkans
SC 14:40:01 26-11-2021
MY1437.108
108 BALKAN BRIEF
COVID-19
in the
Balkans
Sofia, November 26 (BTA) - As some Balkan countries reported improvement of epidemiological data over the past week, others resorted to additional tightening of restrictive measures to avoid deterioration of the situation before the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Greece
Introduced new restrictions from the beginning of the week: unvaccinated persons have no access to catering establishments, theatres, cinemas and gyms, even with a negative test result. The same is valid for children aged 4-17 who can visit some indoor premises accompanied by adults, in addition to presenting a negative test taken at home in the last 24 hours. Access to pharmacies and urban transport remains free. Entry into food stores is phased out according their area capacity. Floating workday starting hours in the state and private sectors were also introduced to avoid crowding in urban transport. A negative test is now also required to enter churches.
Interest in vaccination has increased recently and over 70,000 jabs are administered daily, but the number of new infections remains high. ICU hospitalisations in the last two weeks have increased by 25 per cent, local media report.
The hospitals in northern Greece are overloaded, medics say. Last week, the authorities decreed recruitment of private doctors with practices in North Greece to help state-owned hospitals.
Turkey
Is not planning a new lockdown, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca assured and underscored the importance of vaccination. Some 120 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Turkey so far, 50.2 million people or 59.5 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated and over 13 million have received a booster jab.
Koca also announced that the emergency authorization application for the domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, Turkovac, has been submitted to the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency and its application is expected to begin by the end of the year. Currently, Cinovac, Spitnik V and Pfizer vaccines are used in Turkey.
Romania
The country's epidemiological situation is improving, with more and more counties passing to the "green" scenario with 14-day morbidity under 2 per 1,000 population. This week Bucharest went from "red" to "yellow" scenario, with Thursday's morbidity dropping to 2.67 cases per 1,000 population. Nine counties remain in the "red" scenario with morbidity over 3 per 1,000 population.
Republic of North Macedonia
The number of new infections has dropped by 8.9 per cent compared to the previous week, the country's Institute for Public Health said in its weekly report.
The active cases number 8,339, most of them in Skopje (3,832), and the COVID-19 lethalities so far - 7,474.
A total of 790,000, or 37.9 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated.
Serbia
The epidemiological situation is improving with declining daily numbers of new infections. However, the number of deaths from infection complications remains high.
Currently, people are queuing up for first and booster doses. A total of 44.8 er cent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Cyprus
The government adopted new measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. As of November 29 all children aged 6-11 must present the so-called "Safepass" attesting to recovery from CVOID-19 in the last 6 months or a PCR or rapid antigen test in the last seven days.
Also, primary school students will undergo rapid antigen tests once a week, to be carried out by mobile groups of the Ministry of Health. All school Christmas festivities are called off. Any festivities organized by other establishments shall require special authorisation by the Ministry of Health.
Cyprus has registered a growing number of infections but the test positivity rate remains below 1.0 per cent. A total of 48.1 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Croatia
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 589,015, 543,493 people have recovered and 10,569 fatalities have been reported.
So far, over 4.04 million doses of vaccine have been administered, 53.02 per cent of the entire population and 63.28 per cent of the adult population are fully vaccinated.
Slovenia
The epidemiological situation has improved slightly. With 2,668 new infections and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, the figures are much less than those in previous days, confirming the slight improvement, the health authorities said.
Albania
Reports declining numbers of new infections, with 7,718 active cases, 198,292 positive cases registered since the onset of the pandemic and 3,068 fatalities.
A total of 2.05 million doses have been administered so far and 943,000 or 33.2 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated./RY/BR
/МЙ/
MY1437.108
108 BALKAN BRIEF
COVID-19
in the
Balkans
Sofia, November 26 (BTA) - As some Balkan countries reported improvement of epidemiological data over the past week, others resorted to additional tightening of restrictive measures to avoid deterioration of the situation before the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Greece
Introduced new restrictions from the beginning of the week: unvaccinated persons have no access to catering establishments, theatres, cinemas and gyms, even with a negative test result. The same is valid for children aged 4-17 who can visit some indoor premises accompanied by adults, in addition to presenting a negative test taken at home in the last 24 hours. Access to pharmacies and urban transport remains free. Entry into food stores is phased out according their area capacity. Floating workday starting hours in the state and private sectors were also introduced to avoid crowding in urban transport. A negative test is now also required to enter churches.
Interest in vaccination has increased recently and over 70,000 jabs are administered daily, but the number of new infections remains high. ICU hospitalisations in the last two weeks have increased by 25 per cent, local media report.
The hospitals in northern Greece are overloaded, medics say. Last week, the authorities decreed recruitment of private doctors with practices in North Greece to help state-owned hospitals.
Turkey
Is not planning a new lockdown, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca assured and underscored the importance of vaccination. Some 120 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Turkey so far, 50.2 million people or 59.5 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated and over 13 million have received a booster jab.
Koca also announced that the emergency authorization application for the domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, Turkovac, has been submitted to the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency and its application is expected to begin by the end of the year. Currently, Cinovac, Spitnik V and Pfizer vaccines are used in Turkey.
Romania
The country's epidemiological situation is improving, with more and more counties passing to the "green" scenario with 14-day morbidity under 2 per 1,000 population. This week Bucharest went from "red" to "yellow" scenario, with Thursday's morbidity dropping to 2.67 cases per 1,000 population. Nine counties remain in the "red" scenario with morbidity over 3 per 1,000 population.
Republic of North Macedonia
The number of new infections has dropped by 8.9 per cent compared to the previous week, the country's Institute for Public Health said in its weekly report.
The active cases number 8,339, most of them in Skopje (3,832), and the COVID-19 lethalities so far - 7,474.
A total of 790,000, or 37.9 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated.
Serbia
The epidemiological situation is improving with declining daily numbers of new infections. However, the number of deaths from infection complications remains high.
Currently, people are queuing up for first and booster doses. A total of 44.8 er cent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Cyprus
The government adopted new measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. As of November 29 all children aged 6-11 must present the so-called "Safepass" attesting to recovery from CVOID-19 in the last 6 months or a PCR or rapid antigen test in the last seven days.
Also, primary school students will undergo rapid antigen tests once a week, to be carried out by mobile groups of the Ministry of Health. All school Christmas festivities are called off. Any festivities organized by other establishments shall require special authorisation by the Ministry of Health.
Cyprus has registered a growing number of infections but the test positivity rate remains below 1.0 per cent. A total of 48.1 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Croatia
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 589,015, 543,493 people have recovered and 10,569 fatalities have been reported.
So far, over 4.04 million doses of vaccine have been administered, 53.02 per cent of the entire population and 63.28 per cent of the adult population are fully vaccinated.
Slovenia
The epidemiological situation has improved slightly. With 2,668 new infections and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, the figures are much less than those in previous days, confirming the slight improvement, the health authorities said.
Albania
Reports declining numbers of new infections, with 7,718 active cases, 198,292 positive cases registered since the onset of the pandemic and 3,068 fatalities.
A total of 2.05 million doses have been administered so far and 943,000 or 33.2 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated./RY/BR
/МЙ/
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