Boban Mugosa, the head of the Institute of Public Health in Montenegro has warned of another lockdown due to the epidemiological situation in the country getting worse.
Montenegro has the highest number of active cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population in the Balkans.
Mugosa said: “Lockdown is the final scenario and will be inevitable if the number of active cases continues to rise. I am calling on people to wear protective masks indoors and outdoors and to keep their distance,” Mugosa told the public broadcaster. “Our behaviour is not in accordance with the epidemiological measures and we have to deal with it,” he added.
Yesterday there were 2085 active cases in the country, equivalent to 331 cases for every 100,000 citizens. Albania has just 155 active cases per 100,000, Kosovo has 141, and North Macedonia has 94.
According to Mugosa, over half of those infected are under the age of 50.
“All this could change very quickly and lead to a worse situation. We are currently protected by the fact that most of the patients are young, but if the epidemic moves towards the elderly we will get more serious diseases and more deaths,” Mugosa said.
On 25 May, Prime Minister Dusko Markovic had declared that the country was “corona free” and that all preventative measures were lifted. By 14 June, the situation had started to deteriorate and a few days later it became mandatory to wear protective masks in public.
