“We can have events organised with a minimum risk for people’s health only if organisers, inspectorates and visitors share responsibility”, said Minister Marija Obradović today after extraordinary session of the Council of the Moravički district, held today in Čačak.
She said that that today’s extraordinary session was organised to talk about the forthcoming events in August and in September, primarily the Guča Trumpet Festival, and also the Pranjani Violin Fest, Nušićijada (annual comedy festival) in Ivanjica and Cabbage Festival in Mrčajevci, the organisation of which has not been authorised by the Crisis Management Team.
Ms Obradović emphasized that everyone should know that the state and the Crisis Management Team are not against organisation of these events, but people’s health was the priority and the most important. She said that it was clear to everyone that people needed to gather, particularly in open spaces, in this lasting situation that changed life in Serbia; however, on the other hand, everyone should share responsibility for such events.
“The main conclusion of today’s meeting is that primarily organisers and inspectorates with assistance from the police, and also visitors at the events, should share the responsibility. People must understand that this year Guča festival will be organised differently than in the past”, said Ms Obradović.
She said that it was agreed to organise the the Guča Trumpet Festival in such a manner to make it an example for other events, namely, to introduce a 7km long “protected zone” with strictly controlled access. It was agreed that organiser of events and inspectorates should revise their plans so that access to this zone is provided to vaccinated citizens and those with a negative PCR test, and to set up points where those who are not vaccinated can be tested by rapid tests, with a possibility of vaccination at those points.
Ms Obradović concluded that the meeting was very dynamic and that opinions of both medical experts and organisers and inspectorates could be heard, and said that there was a will to organise such events, but measures must be respected and the responsibility must be shared.
She said that the public would be informed every day that the Guča festival would not be the same as before, that access would be restricted and if visitors wanted to have a good time and enjoy themselves, they would have to be responsible. She announced that next week, after revised plans are received, it would be decided whether these events could be held in such a manner and said to the citizens that if they did not want to respect the set measures, the Guča festival would not be held, and the Crisis Management Team could also ban its organisation respecting exclusively the interest of protection of the nations’ health.
“Vaccination is the issue of national importance. Each day you delay vaccination, you helped prolonging the epidemic”, said Ms Obradović.
She emphasized that we must begin a new wave of vaccination, because only 49.7 percent of Serbian citizens had been vaccinated, only 50 cities/towns had more than 50 percent of vaccinated people, which was far from collective immunity. Eight local self-government units had less than 30 percent of vaccinated people, while only five percent of young people were vaccinated, and this was not commendable, said Ms Obradović.
The extraordinary session of the Council, scheduled by the Head of the Moravički administrative district Slobodan Jolović, M.A., was also attended by the Assistant Minister of Health Dr. Zoran Stamenković, Assistant Ministers of trade and tourism and construction, transport and infrastructure, as well as the Mayor of Čačak, Presidents of municipalities of Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica and Lučani, heads of municipal administrations, representatives of the Institute for Public Health in Čačak, city and municipal medical centres, the Police Administration and the Municipal Police in Čačak and representatives of inspectorates.
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