25.11.2020.
President Vučić: I am proud that we have built a magnificent Covid hospital in Batajnica
President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces Aleksandar Vučić, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović, PhD, and Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar, visited tonight the new Covid hospital that is being built in the Military Complex “Zemun ekonomija” in Belgrade and on that occasion he said that, as a citizen of Serbia, he was proud of the fact that a magnificent hospital had been built in just four months.
- I would like to congratulate all the people who have worked on this project, the workers, the “Termomont” company that has made this happen, and the state which has mustered up the strength to pay for all this in the most difficult situation during the coronavirus pandemic, when the entire world is in financial and economic crisis. We are anxious to open at least this Covid unit with 200 intensive care beds in seven days’ time. There will be even more beds later, we are planning to open a semi-intensive care unit with another 500 beds. When the coronavirus pandemic is over, we will use this hospital for other patients in need of intensive care – President Vučić pointed out.According to President Vučić, the state will invest more than six to seven billion dinars in the construction of new Covid hospitals in Belgrade and Kruševac alone, that is, around 60 million euros, and additional 30 million euros in the equipment for the hospitals. As he says, these are enormous funds that we have managed to raise in order to save people’s lives and health, and reduce death rates as much as possible.
When it comes to Covid-19, President Vučić points out that Serbia is in a difficult situation, because 6500 hospital beds are occupied at the moment, and only the Orthopaedic Clinic remains outside the Covid system in Belgrade, which will be turned into a Covid hospital as a last resort.
Today, 22,000 people have been tested for Covid-19 in Serbia, and President Vučić announces that we will be testing 25 to 30 thousand people a day. He says that all this is exhausting our laboratory, human and financial resources, because this involves unfathomable amounts of money, but he also points out that the solution for this situation lies in two things – mass testing and the vaccine.
- We will try to procure the first significant round of the Covid-19 vaccine in the next month. We are negotiating with all countries. Firstly, we are part of the EU’s Covax initiative. Secondly, if they procure Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, we will procure it as well, whatever the price. If they procure Moderna’ vaccine, we will procure it as well, whatever the price. Whatever they procure, we will procure the same thing – says President Vučić and adds that, when it comes to the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, Serbia is also negotiating with Chinese and Russian partners, as well as the British. He says that the goal is to procure the first batch of a million doses by the end of the year, 25,000 of which will be used to protect health professionals who work in the Covid system and are under tremendous pressure.
- They are exposed the most. They are in the most difficult position. They are literally running out of physical strength, and a large number of them - 1,500 health workers are infected. We will do our best and try to provide vaccines for health workers, for the military, the police, for people who work in the mines, power plants, water supply systems, i.e. public services and utilities, so that everything can function normally. I am sorry to hear that as many as 80 people who work here are unwell, and hundreds and hundreds of workers work here every day, on the construction of this hospital alone.
President Vučić points out that the new hospital within the "Zemun ekonomija" complex will be the largest hospital in our Covid system, and that this hospital and the new one in Kruševac, whose anticipated date of completion is 15 December, will be equipped with 420 ventilators which offer the high flow oxygen therapy mode, which is less invasive and which gives patients a better chance of survival.
The new Covid hospital will be part of the Clinical Centre of Serbia, and in that way all logistical problems related to providing the hospital with the necessary supplies will be solved, both during the Covid epidemic and outside the Covid system, explains President Vučić and adds that the hospital will have a parking lot that will hold 700 cars and that the construction of the third access lane on Batajnički put is underway, with a separate slip road leading to the hospital itself.Responding to reporters’ questions, President Vučić says that when the vaccine arrives in our country, he will be the first to receive it, together with the soldiers he commands.
The new Covid hospital that is being built in Batajnica was also visited by the Mayor of Belgrade Zoran Radojičić, Deputy Mayor of Belgrade Zoran Vesić, representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces and other institutions involved in the construction of the hospital.
