Expert: Omicron Spreads Five Times Faster, Not Enough People Vaccinated

Vaccination (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC/MO)

On Jan. 11, Zoran Bekic, the chief director of health centers in the Belgrade municipality of Savski Venac, said that the Omicron variant spreads five times faster than other known types of Covid-19, which is one of the reasons for the sharp surge in the country's number of newly-infected. Another contributing factor, according to him, is the "not so high vaccination rate."

"Two point three million of our compatriots have not received a single dose of any vaccine. Of those who are eligible for a third dose, nearly 980,000 have not received it. Therefore, we have 3.3 million people who can potentially catch Covid," Bekic told Pink TV.

He estimated that over 15,000 individuals in Serbia contract Covid daily, explaining that some people do not manage to see a doctor due to the long queues at Covid clinics, while others with milder symptoms do not even try to get tested.

According to Bekic, the current vaccination rate -- counting those who have received two doses of a vaccine -- is about 59 percent, while just over 30 percent of Serbia's population has taken a third dose.

Epidemiologist Predrag Kon stated in the evening of Jan. 10 that the infection rates would rise over the following two weeks. "It was clear that New Year's would be a trigger for the sudden worsening of the epidemic situation and that Omicron was at our door. New Year's -- especially all [the celebrations] that [were] organized -- should not have happened," Kon told the RTS public service.