Bosnia and Herzegovina's border will open to foreigners at the start of June, however, passengers will be treated according to which country they are coming from, an official of the Health Ministry in the Federation entity said on Tuesday.

“Entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina will probably be allowed as of the start of June. We are considering measures and will see what they will be like for certain countries because it is not the same if passengers are coming from Italy or some other country where the (epidemiological) situation is stable,” Assistant Federation Health Minister Goran Cerkez told reporters in Sarajevo.

He underscored that the obligation of two-week self-isolation for anyone coming from abroad would remain in force until May 30, because the aim is to maintain stability until the start of the summer so that the situation can remain under control in that period as well.

The decision to open the border has to be adopted by the country’s Council of Ministers, however, Cerkez has no doubts that that will occur at the end of May because the epidemiological situation in the country is stabilising and the increase in the number of new infections is under control.

He explained that there were currently 665 people in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina who are considered to have come down with COVID-19. Twenty-five are being treated in hospital but not one patient is in critical condition.

In the past 24 hours 19 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified, 14 of whom are in the Republika Srpska entity. The Federation entity has recorded a significantly better epidemiological situation and new cases reported in that entity over the past few weeks have been in single-digit numbers.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in March, more than 51,000 people in the entire country have been tested for the virus, with 2,300 cases proving positive to coronavirus. The death toll in the country is 131.