"Something is happening in Pazar": No parties, more vaccinations, yet death records get broken

Photo: Tanjug/Lazar Lazarevic

They canceled celebrations. They launched a vaccination campaign like no one has done before. They have even increased the coverage of vaccinated citizens, and yet the epidemiological situation in Novi Pazar is still unstable and uncertain. In addition to a large number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, there is also a large number of persons who are dying.

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In just one week, last week, 29 patients died in the General Hospital in Novi Pazar from the consequences caused by coronavirus, according to official data of the Emergency Situations Headquarters.

According to this data, 22 patients from this city died in 7 days: four from the neighboring Tutin, while three patients came from Raska.

In the first 19 days of September, 63 people died in this city, of which 41 were from Novi Pazar, 13 from Tutin, seven from Raska and two from Sjenica.

The highest number of deaths in one day this month so far was recorded on Saturday, when seven patients died from the consequences of Covid, six of whom were from this city and one from Tutin.

During the previous day, 11 people were hospitalized, and currently 182 patients are being treated, of which 11 are on ventilators and nine on oxygen support.

The director of the Institute of Public Health in Novi Pazar Sefadil Spahic told Telegraf.rs that despite everything, the epidemiological situation in that city is still unstable and uncertain, although the number of confirmed cases of infection decreased last week, as has the number of first examinations.

"We had a percentage of infections of around 48 percent. That is the highest we've had, then 42 percent during this month, and now it dropped to 35 percent. The number of first examinations is also falling, but you can see for yourself that something is happening, people are dying," says Spahic.

He recalled that because of the "war" against coronavirus, celebrations in hospitality establishments have been canceled, religious ceremonies that go with strict adherence to distancing measures have been shortened, a vaccination campaign has been launched...

"During these 20 days in September, we vaccinated 2,140 people with the first dose, which is an increase compared to the previous month. Now, a total of 24,621 people have received the first dose, more than 20,000 have been revaccinated and almost 2,000 have received the third dose. We hope that all this will give a positive result," says Spahic, who told us to get information about the number of deaths from the hospital in Novi Pazar and its clinicians.

Celebrations in this city, by the decision of the local Crisis HQ for the fight against coronavirus, have not been organized in hospitality establishments since September 13. The agreement is that this decision will remain in force until the epidemiological situation in the city improves.

On the other hand, a vaccination campaign has been launched. One of the videos shows a man standing next to a panel with street obituaries, and saying that "if those obituaries are not a sufficient reason for vaccination, then he doesn't know what is."

We have not been not able to find out on Monday from the authorities in the hospital in this town what is happening and why so many patients are dying. Our goal was to see if they had been vaccinated, chronically ill, if they might have seen the doctor too late... Nobody from the infectious diseases ward was allowed to speak to us, they told us this is done by the "competent service," and we have not been able to contact the director because he was not in his office.

Novi Pazar has constantly been at the center of attention during the coronavirus epidemic. If the town did have a respite, it was brief.

We all remember the catastrophe from July of last year, when 10 people died there in 24 hours.

(Telegraf.rs)