The World Bank approved a loan of 100 million dollars to Serbia. The loan will finance the installation of up to 12 stations for rapid testing of passengers entering our country and the construction of two new regional laboratories.
According to the World Bank, the capacity for testing for the coronavirus in Serbia will increase from 7,000 to more than 9,000 tests a day, and the goal of the loan is to help Serbia prevent, detect and react to the Covid-19 pandemic in a timely manner.
Testing stations will be set up at Belgrade and Nis airports, and up to 10 border crossings will be selected at which they will be set up.
In addition, two new regional laboratories will be built – at the Clinical Center of Vojvodina in Novi Sad and at the Clinical Center in Kragujevac – which will be able to process 1,000 samples a day, or about 130 tests per 100,000 inhabitants per day.
The World Bank will also help Serbia procure additional protective equipment, import laboratories that test for Covid-19 into one electronic system, as well as strengthen diagnostics, intensive care units and isolation units.
“Serbia managed to straighten the curve of the pandemic in the first raid of Covid-19, but that does not mean that it should relax, but work on improving the readiness for the next raids,” says Stephen Ndegwa, head of the World Bank Office in Serbia.
Increasing the capacity for testing and diagnosis of Covid-19, along with better intensive care units and an electronic virus testing monitoring system, will enable the Government of Serbia to adapt infection control measures to previous experience in the fight against this disease, Ndegwa added.
Thanks to this project called “Emergency Response Project to Covid-19”, Serbia will strengthen the monitoring system and epidemiological capacity for detecting and confirming cases of the disease.
This will enable Serbia to be more prepared to assess the risk, to be able to detect and confirm the disease early and to have timely data for decision-making, in order to take all necessary measures, the statement said, BiF reports.
