"We are at a turning point" - 411 newly infected, while 9 people died VIDEO

"We are at a turning point" - 411 newly infected, while 9 people died VIDEO

There are 171 patients on respirators, and 4.571 patients were hospitalized.

In the last 24 hours, 9.650 people were tested, while 631.274 people have been tested since the beginning of the epidemic.

Three women, with an average age of 67.6 years, and 6 men, with an average age of 68.6 years, died.

A total of 543 people have died since the outbreak of the epidemic.

The Director of KBC Zvezdara, Petar Svorcan, said that the situation is better than in the previous days, but that the clinical picture of patients who are admitted and go to intensive care is difficult.

The good thing is that we discharged more patients than admitted, he said.

299 patients were hospitalized in KBC Zvezdara and the situation is somewhat better than in the previous days, because the number of hospitalized is below 300 patients.

Svorcan said that 28 patients are in intensive care, and 17 of them are extremely difficult patients, life-threatening, on mechanical ventilation, while the rest are in intensive care on non-invasive ventilation.

Nine employees in this institution are infected, two with a moderate clinical picture, and seven with a mild home treatment.

"We must not relax," Svorcan added.

"We have quite stable numbers of laboratory-confirmed cases, there is a large number of tested persons," Dr Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, said, adding that there are optimistic parameters, that there are fewer of them for hospitalization.

"We are at a turning point, when the curve is expected to go downhill, but we need to be able to adhere to the measures at this very moment," she pointed out.

The virus in the masks... Don't pay attention

Kisic Tepavcevic commented on the statement of SDA leader Sulejman Ugljanin that a virus was put in protective masks.

"I don't know if anyone took such a statement seriously, we are all here together to share information that is based on evidence," Dr Kisic Tepavcevic replied.

She pointed out that such statements, which may be interesting to the media, should not be given importance at the Crisis Staff conferences.

"There must be responsibility for every word spoken publicly. In the modern world, many give themselves the right to say things that are not in their area of expertise."

Persons in self-isolation

Regarding the persons who were in self-isolation, she said that such a person must have a document of being tested, giving a swab or about the status of COVID-positivity.

"I hope that there is no person among us who knows that he is COVID-positive and who feels good and who would consciously move and consciously spread the infection around him".

Dr Kisic Tepavcevic said that so far most patients now show as the main symptom the loss of the sense of smell, and that so far COVID-19 has shown a wide range of symptoms. It is one of the symptoms, but the decision on testing will be made on the basis of several other parameters.

"At this moment, it is possible that someone has those symptoms, and that they are not positiive forCOVID-19. Infections can be caused by many other viruses, which did not disappear with the outbreak of the coronavirus," Kisic Tepavcevic claims.

"We know even less about asymptomatic carriers, because they are unrecognized. In fact, when we talk about the iceberg and this disease, we only see the tip of the iceberg, but all those unrecognized forms of this disease are unknown to us but are very important."

Dr Svorcan discussed the sequelae after suffering from the disease: It is a short time whether patients after suffering from COVID-19 have some consequences and more lasting consequences.

"Blood plasma is given by a conciliar decision. There is a certain system, that you have a certain number of points and there is a certain system how to get that plasma. Those who received it, showed better results than those who did not. The best results are if the patient receives plasma in up to 12 days", Svorcan said.

When asked whether the introduction of quarantine for passengers from certain countries is being considered, Kisic Tepavcevic said that it is always discussed and considered, but no decision has been made on that yet.

"Certainly, the collective immunity of the population significantly affects the virulence of the virus. No matter how much it can survive in the external environment, it can only survive in us, if there are no individuals in which it can survive, it will disappear. The degree of collective immunity is below the level which would prevent the epidemic spread of the disease. The strategy of collective immunity is not good because we do not know how the virus will behave in our body, it can lead to complications, including death"; Kisic Tepavcevic explained.