28.03.2020.

Minister Vulin in Niš: We will only defeat this disease if every citizen of Serbia decides to defeat it

- In accordance with the orders of the Crisis Staff, the Serbian Armed Forces have started adapting the Hall of Čair and other premises in Niš for the needs of a field hospital, which will accommodate people with mild symptoms of the coronavirus - said the Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin , who, together with the Mayor of Niš, Darko Bulatović and the Army Commander, Lieutenant General Milosav Simović, today visited the members of the Serbian Armed Forces engaged in setting up beds and creating conditions for the reception and accommodation of persons with symptoms of the disease.

Patients with the most severe symptoms are being treated in hospitals, Minister Vulin pointed out, while the patients with mild symptoms, who can still easily infect others, will be here.

- The facility will be furnished in the same fashion as the one in Belgrade, which was approved and highly praised by the Chinese experts. This includes hospital screens, bedside lockers and the area for rest and adequate nutrition. So the facility in Niš will have everything that the one in Belgrade does - said the minister, adding that if there is a need for more beds, there is additional space that will be adapted to the need.

The Minister of Defence said that the Serbian Armed Forces are there to help and organise life in these facilities and he asked everyone to understand that these are not hotels.

- People will be treated here. Please understand that military discipline will prevail here. I’m begging you but Lieutenant Colonel Mijalković, who is the commander of this facility, will not beg you. His orders are executive and those accommodated here will have to obey and accept that they are in a military facility with military discipline, Minister Vulin pointed out, explaining that this is the only way for things to function and "only this way we can leave this place healthy, happy, safe and we can go back to our families. “

- This disease will be defeated if every citizen of Serbia decides to defeat it, and if only one person does not obey the rules, or escapes from the quarantine, that is enough to transmit the disease. We can only win together, so please stay home. We can avoid it, it is possible not to get infected, you can stay at home and be safe - said the Minister of Defence, adding that this is primarily a fight for our parents, but it is also a fight for each of us, so he urged all the people to stay where they most want to be and that is in their homes.

He confirmed that there will be no compromise with anyone who violates the rules and thinks he or she can come and go whenever they want.

- Patients will come here with the referral from a relevant doctor, by our medical institutions’ vehicles and everything will be arranged, and life, as the military say, will be organized according to plan because that is the only way - Minister Vulin pointed out and confirmed that the facility will start work next week.

Responding to questions about the reactions on social networks, where people comment on stained pillows, the minister said that soldiers were sleeping on those and he sent a message to people on the networks, in which he asked them to attack freely but to do so from their homes.

- They should sit nicely at home and tweet, and pour out all their hatred on us, and then they should turn around and lie down in their beds so they don't have to come to these beds. I ask them to be honest enough to admit that it is the same way, or much worse, in far bigger and richer countries. You have seen what it looks like in Madrid, Italy or Vienna. This place is clean, tidy, well organized, and the beds will be provided with proper pillowcases and linen. Everything will be clean, disinfected and wholesome. Our soldiers sleep in these beds on clean bedding. I slept in a bed like this, with the same kind of bedding, in a place as big as this quarantine, so I see no reason why others could not do the same - said the Minister of Defence, noting that this is not a hotel , but it is spotlessly clean.

The Mayor of Niš, Darko Bulatović stressed that the Crisis Staff has created all the conditions for adapting this premises, with the help of the Army members, to the reception of the people infected with the coronavirus.

- When it is finally adapted, this space will look completely different. It will have all the characteristics of rooms, according to all health and sanitary guidelines - the mayor confirmed, adding that the Student Centre is in charge of food preparation, and that about 100,000 disposable cutlery sets have already been procured.

Members of the armed forces will secure this facility and control the entry and exit, while the medical professionals of the Clinical Centre will provide the patients with the necessary health care.

Lieutenant Colonel Vladan Mijalković of the Mixed Artillery Brigade, who will be the commander of the facility, confirmed that the soldiers from that unit were given a task by the Army Command to create the conditions for the admission of patients suffering from Covid-19.

- We have set up 168 beds in the Čair Hall since yesterday, and another 59 beds in an additional room. Currently, we are preparing 280 beds in two more elementary schools, which will significantly increase the accommodation capacities in the city of Niš. Today and tomorrow we will create even better conditions by installing the internet and television, and, in accordance with the guidelines we have received, we will put up screens dividing the space into “rooms” with eight or nine beds, so that the persons accommodated here will have all the living conditions - confirmed Lieutenant Colonel Mijalković.