Close to 900 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported by Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, which is a major increase compared to the period until mid-February and more proof that the epidemic has flared up again while vaccination is hopelessly late.

According to information from the entity public health institutes, of some 4,100 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, infection was confirmed in 894. Twenty-nine Covid-19 patients have died.

The country had been registering an increase in daily numbers since last week but they were not as high as Wednesday’s.

Since the start of the epidemic in March 2020, slightly more than 133,000 people have contracted Covid-19 and 5,102 of them have died. Slightly more than 660,000 tests have been conducted.

The epidemiological situation was relatively stable from mid-December to mid-February, but that has changed now. The disease is spreading again, especially in the area of Sarajevo, where for days now more than 300 new cases have been registered on a daily basis.

Despite that and due to relatively mild restrictions, bars and restaurants in the Bosnian capital on Wednesday asked to be allowed to work until midnight, with live music, which was again allowed in the Serb entity at the beginning of the week.

The number of new infections is growing amid uncertainty regarding the procurement of the vaccine. Except for 22,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, obtained by the Serb entity, and 10,000 doses donated by Serbia to the other, Federation entity, Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far not received any of the 1.23 million vaccine doses ordered from Western producers.

The delivery deadline that is now being mentioned is April or May, when slightly more than 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected to be delivered.