Government reached decision: Schools won't be closed; Experts: Did it work in Italy?

Government reached decision: Schools won't be closed; Experts: Did it work in Italy?

"The president insisted that we consider this decision once again. I made that proposal - my opinion is that we should do it.

The profession's view is that there is no professional justification or professional basis for closing schools, kindergartens and colleges. At this point, it would be counterproductive”, she states.

"At this point, we are far from school break, if the children were sitting in houses and in isolation, they would gather in other places and in that sense, we would not do anything smart and positive", Prime Minister Brnabic explained. "Despite our political insistence, we all understand the panic and I have to say hysteria in society.

There is no professional justification for the suspension of teaching. And I conveyed that, as Prime Minister, to the President of Serbia, as I am not in a position to make that decision on my own," Brnabic said to the media and the public.

She stressed that she implored parents, teachers, school principals, as well as all education staff members to understand and, most importantly, to listen to experts and follow their instructions.

"It is possible that this will change, but at this point, every day is important to us and it is smart for us to go day by day because we will have much less control if the children are out of school," she said.

After Prime Minister, epidemiologist Dr. Predrag Kon addressed the public, who emphasized that children do not transmit coronavirus, according to the latest information coming from China. "The fact is that asymptomatic reactions occur in schoolchildren, but it is not known how many. These are the facts. In such a situation, making early decisions about closing schools is a mistake, and I am firmly behind it," Kon said.

"I promise that if anything is noticed that will contribute to the change of the situation, we will promptly respond. We know that everyone's eager and waiting for us to abandon this standpoint, but we will not do that," Kon said, reiterating that, for now, there is no reason for the schools and kindergartens to be closed in Serbia.

After his address, the Prime Minister added that because of the expert advice, the flu epidemic had been successfully completed and that is why she will now listen to their advice.

"At the advice of the profession, when we witnessed the flu outburst, we extended school break by a week. No one in the Government was running away from it. At that time, their advice was to extend the break and thanks to their advice, we ended the epidemic before the coronavirus case was recorded. At this point we will listen to the profession because we have stopped the flu thanks to their good judgement", Brnabic concluded.