Meeting of the Republic of Srpska officials on the situation regarding the occurrence of coronavirus held

The President of the Republic of Srpska Željka Cvijanović said today that the Prime Minister of Srpska Radovan Višković has convened a Government session to declare an emergency situation.

“We will also demand that the National Assembly, in accordance with its competences, declare a state of emergency afterwards”, said the President Cvijanović after the meeting of Srpska officials in Banja Luka regarding the corona virus.

The President of the Republic of Srpska emphasized that in an emergency situation a special headquarters would be formed to take care of all activities.

“There were floods last time, and now it is something else. The headquarters will take appropriate measures, cooperate with the competent authorities, because we want to take matters seriously. There is a better mobility of certain decisions for which you do not have to wait for some special time”, said the President Cvijanović, noting that the National Assembly session would be held as soon as possible and that the state of emergency dictates a new regime of behavior in society and the functioning of institutions.

The President of the Republic recalled that the institutions in Srpska had defined the necessary measures in the past period, and the public was informed thereof.

“We expect the Council of Ministers to do its part in dealing with the coordinating body in relation to these situations. The state of emergency will also imply a new regime of functioning of the institutions of Srpska, but also a regime within the entire society”, it was added by the President Cvijanović.

The President of the Republic of Srpska reiterated that it is not enough for institutions to prescribe measures if there is no adequate cooperation of the citizens, which means complete discipline, and that communication with the elderly must be minimised.

“Unfortunately, we have not had such discipline and there were many examples where the prescribed measures were not respected. There were really a lot of social contacts where there should not have been any, and the result is a new situation and an obligation”, said the President Cvijanović.

According to the President of Srpska, it is important to keep track of what is happening in the surrounding countries when it comes to certain needs for the Republic of Srpska Institute of Public Health and Inspection.

“Since of 6.00 a.m. this morning, there is a new regime that implies new behavior at the border crossings, as well as issuing adequate solutions prescribing mandatory home isolation for persons coming from abroad who are the BiH citizens. We need to get used to the new situation, because we cannot be exempt from something that is general behavior in case of general vulnerability of the population, I am talking about the EU here, and we have seen what is happening in China and in America”, said the President Cvijanović.

The President of the Republic of Srpska stressed that the institutions of the Republic of Srpska are focused on building all capacities and taking appropriate measures.

“What is important is that as the citizens of Srpska, we need to protect our health care workers so that they can help us. That is why we are persistently saying that the virus must be prevented from entering the healthcare system. We are not satisfied with the fact that the queues in the chains and shops are large, because the citizens want to be supplied, although the essence of the measures was to avoid gatherings. There is no need to stock up, there will be supplies, and there will be ways to supply everyone”, said the President Cvijanović.
 

The President of the Republic stressed that there was an obligation to reduce the number of social contacts, which means another regime in the work collectives, to which the private sector must also adapt.

“An important thing is that in the next few weeks we show that we are responsible to prevent, resolve or at least reduce the harmful effects of this problem. If we are frivolous, the consequences will be greater, said the President of the Republic, noting that there was a big fight ahead for things to be remedied internally.

The President of Srpska said that every society has many tools in an emergency situation, particularly the state of emergency.

“All relevant services, health services and police are making sure that appropriate measures are implemented, which means that people are sanctioned. One of the things that will be appropriately applied and the particular one we are thinking about is a tougher penal policy. There is no time to be able to think how to get away with a small sentence but to know who are the guilty ones. And the case in Prnjavor shows that the police had to react because the persons did not go to the self-isolation and did not report to the competent services, and at the same time had social contacts, it was concluded by the President of the Republic.