Serbian health authorities have been registering more than 4,000 new coronavirus cases per day since 3 March, but despite increasingly vocal demands by doctors from Covid-19 hospitals and medical experts, the government has still not decided to ramp up epidemiological restrictions.

A total of 15,265 tests were conducted between Sunday noon and Monday and 4,634 came back positive. Twenty-eight people have died as a consequence of the infection in the past 24 hours. A total of 4,516 people are being treated in hospitals, and 219 of them are on ventilators.

On 24 December Serbia started a mass vaccination campaign, initially with the Pfizer’s vaccine, followed by the Russian-made Sputnik V, Chinese-made Sinopharm and – starting two weeks ago – AstraZeneca-made vaccine.

Meanwhile, a new increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations has been recorded, attributed to non-compliance with current restrictions on daily life, with people behaving in a more relaxed way due to the vaccination campaign, and also the end of winter holidays.

Due to problem of illegally operating bars and restaurants, government’s inspectors have filed dozens of fines. The numbers of cases has not declined yet, with local health officials increasingly appealing for stricter measures to bring the numbers down and relieve the burden on the health system.

Despite expectations, the lockdown which was re-introduced recently only applies to weekends, from 9 pm on Friday to 6 am Monday – instead of throughout the entire week.

Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, said on Sunday, after consulting with doctors on the national Covid-19 task force, that stricter restrictions are “necessary,” although no changes have been made yet.

Minister for State Administration, Marija Obradovic, said on Monday that so far 1,365,000 people had registered for vaccination, adding that the number is “insufficient.” Serbia has a population of about 6 million. Obradovic announced that the mass vaccination of people aged 60 or above who have not made applied online yet would start next weekend.

According to official data, by Monday a total of 2,029,388 vaccine doses have been administered, including 790,852 people who have received both shots necessary for full inoculation.