Healthcare authorities in Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity urged the citizens to obey the coronavirus prevention measures that are still in force as the region recorded a surge in the number of new coronavirus infections, 39 over the past 24 hours.

Only the capital Sarajevo, located in this part of the country, has seen 16 new coronavirus infections, the largest number of new cases per day since the epidemic outbreak.

There is a reason for concern over the increased number of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, member of Health Ministry’s crisis staff in Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) region told N1 on Thursday.

“Obviously everyone got way too relaxed,” he said.

Asked if this means the authorities will introduce the restriction measures that were recently lifted in the region, following the drop of the number of new infections and abolition of the state of emergency, Cerkez said they would rather intervene more locally to avoid the scenarios the region is experiencing these days.

Addressing a daily press conference on Thursday, FBiH Health Minister Vjekoslav Mandic said the situation was under control and that the “epidemic tails” were expected at this point of the epidemic. However, he recalled that the restriction measures such as physical distance and mandatory wearing of face masks in public were still in force.

One of the FBiH’s sub-regions, the northern Tuzla Canton, have launched a procedure to reinstate the epidemic on its territory, following the spike in new Covid-19 cases.

The FBiH has recorded the total of 1,227 Covid-19 patients, with 980 who have recovered to date. 40 have died as a result of the coronavirus infection.

On the other hand, Republika Srpska (RS), the region making the other half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is seeing a flattening coronavirus infection curve with 18 new cases recorded over the last 24 hours.

The region has so far reported 1,585 coronavirus infections with a total of 1,104 who have recovered. The total of 117 Covid-19 patients has died in this part of the country.

According to Bosnia’s Civil Affairs Ministry, 2,832 coronavirus infections have been reported in the country to date. Bosnia’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 161 and 2,100 patients have recovered to date.

Brcko District, a separate administrative unit in the north, has seen 20 confirmed Covid-19 patients, of which 16 recovered and four died.