Epidemiologist: By April, 70 Percent of Serbia's Population Will Have Contracted Omicron

Corona Virus (BETAPHOTO/SASA DJORDJEVIC)

The number of Serbian citizens infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is actually three to four times greater than official records based on lab tests show, epidemiologist Radmilo Petrovic has said, adding that 70 percent of the country's population will have contracted the virus by the end of March.

In an interview for the Jan. 19 issue of the Vecernje Novosti daily, Petrovic stated that, in the preceding week, ever since the official statistics of newly-infected per day surpassed 10,000, the total number of currently infected has reached between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals -- of which, Petrovic claims, a vast majority "are not visible in official records."

"By the end of March, 70 percent of the population will have contracted the Omicron variant, which has displayed the most mutations so far [allowing it to] breach both postvaccinal and naturally-acquired immunity. We will detect [the virus in] only a minority of this [total], while the remainder of [infected individuals] will go about spreading the virus because they will have completely asymptomatic infections," Petrovic said.

According to him, the daily count of newly-infected will "most likely" continue to increase for another two weeks, while "a drop" should occur in the second half of February.