Serbia's anti-epidemic crisis team said on Monday it would ask the government to re-introduce some restrictive measures to cope with the daily increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus, local media reported.

Under the proposal, face masks would become mandatory in public transport while that was only a recommendation so far, but public gatherings, both indoor and outdoor, would not be limited to a certain number of people. Cafes and restaurants would continue working normally, but face masks would have to be worn inside. 

The crisis team also suggested that penalties should be introduced for violations of the new measures. 

The measures whould be introduced in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade where the number of Covid-19 patients was  extremely high, while local authorities in some other palces had aready implemented similar measures.

Monday’s decision came after politicians and doctors in Serbia have placed blame on the people’s behaviour for the spike in coronavirus cases. Since the number of people who tested positive rose rapidly in recent days to reach over 200 a day, both politicians and medical experts have raced to explain the surge by saying that the people have been disobeying the crisis team’s recommendations.

On May 6, the authorities, based on the crisis team’s suggestion, lifted the state of emergency and the curfew and relaxed almost all anti-epidemic measures introduced in March.

The lifted restrictions included the unlimited number of people at outdoor events and 500 instead of 100 of those who can gather indoor.

That led to soccer matches with the audience up to 20,000 people, an outdoor tennis tournament, weddings and another kind of mass gatherings. Face masks and physical distance were recommended but rarely obeyed.

 Then, on June 21, general elections took place. Electoral boards mostly took precautionary steps, but not all voters did.

President Aleksandar Vucic and the officials of his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)o celebrated the overwhelming election victory with brass music, dancing, hugging – without face masks or wearing them improperly.

 A week later, the Parliament Speaker, Defence Minister and the head of the Government Office for Kosovo, who were in the party headquarters for celebration, were tested positive, and two of them were hospitalised. Vucic’s media advisor said his health would be monitored since he was close to those infected so far.

Other parties also had either victory celebrations or news conferences, also only rarely resecting anti-epidemic measures.

 In the meantime, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) had access to the so-called information system in which the number of dead and infected people during the epidemic was much larger than those officially reported on the Health Ministry covid19.rs website.

The authorities and some doctors explained the difference by way of classification of deaths from COVID-19 and those with COVID-19.

The chief epidemiologist and a member of the Crisis Team Predrag Kon said that if the BIRN report was correct, that was the reason for his resignation.

However, he and other doctors said they had not seen the report BIRN had access to, and no investigation had been launched to establish what numbers were correct.

In defending the official data, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic gave an example. She told a TV that if she was tested positive on coronavirus and was killed by a bus on the way to a hospital, she didn’t die from COVID-19.

Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, a member of the Crisis Team, said on Monday that the voting did not contribute to the increase in numbers of infected in the last week.

She compared the risk at polling stations with shopping, adding the measures were respected.

Dr Zlatibor Loncar, Health Minister, mainly blamed people for disrespecting the recommended measures, while SNS mayor of the central city of Kragujevac said: “Our people need a stick” to behave appropriately. He later said it was a figure of speech.

Some doctors, opposition leaders and analysts have said that people generally lost trust in the authorities, both political and medical, after the BIRN report and the lack of any official legal to it.

They blame the authorities for lifting almost all the measures so soon, charging they put elections and the economy before people’s health.