Dr Kon warns: There is no time, winter break must commence prior to Saint Nicholas

Dr Kon warns: There is no time, winter break must commence prior to Saint Nicholas

The epidemiologist and member of the Crisis Staff also referred to the announcement of the World Health Organization that by March 2022, 700.000 people across Europe will die from the consequences of COVID-19 infection.

According to him, the real number of deaths since the outburst of the pandemic is between 10 and 20 million, because subsequent analyzes always show that the number of deaths is higher.

"Winter is the period when respiratory infections are most common and transmission is easiest due to being indoors. Last year it turned out to be so. The virus lives in the human body. It depends on our behavior, Kon said in the morning program of Kurir television.

He adds that the very thought that there could be a collision between the flu virus and the coronavirus sounds scary.

"A natural process cannot be prevented. The collision of virus groups and coronaviruses depends on their potentials. We did not detect the flu virus last year. It is probably present in our country now, but it has not been found in research. The very idea of ​​two epidemics is very unpleasant because the two diseases are difficult to distinguish", said Kon. The epidemiologist warns that the drop in numbers does not mean that this wave is over.

"It can only be predicted two weeks in advance. After that, you can't know if the virus will change and how people will behave, regardless of how we regulate the measures. It directly depends on how the situation will move forward. You can't to observe Serbia isolated in relation to Europe. There is an increase everywhere. We now have a slow decline, but for a full seven weeks, we had an average of 6.000 a day while it was calm everywhere. The measures only serve to slow down that flow at the moment. It’s all done because of the health care system”, Kon said.

He emphasizes that immediately after the holidays, there is a noticeable increase in the number of newly infected. "In just one week, there has been an increase in the number of newly infected five times. Almost a million people are connected to school. When you take everything into account, half of Serbia is connected with going to school," Kon said. Epidemiologist emphasized that there is a lot of talk about going on winter break earlier.

"We have to think things through in advance. Ministry of Education should coordinate all the work. We from the medical section of the Crisis Staff think that it is useful for the vacation to start earlier. We talked about dates, but it is not right to go out with that. Due to the Catholic Christmas, our citizens who live abroad already come to Serbia around St. Nicholas, from the countries where delta strain reigns. It is realistic that children do not go to school when people who bring the virus come. The Ministry of Education has stated that it will adjust school agenda accordingly. I think it all started on time. There is not much time left," Kon said, adding that the session of the Crisis Staff has not been scheduled yet.