Serbian minister makes protest plea amid virus

Serbia's health minister has appealed to people not to join protests against the country's restrictive measures to combat a surge in the new coronavirus cases in the Balkan country.For over a week, thousands of people across Serbia have been defying a ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people to demonstrate against the Serbian president's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The protests initially started on July 7 when populist President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the capital, Belgrade, would be placed under a new three-day lockdown following a second wave of confirmed coronavirus infections.His government later abolished the plan and instead introduced a 10-person ban, but the sometimes violent protests continued.Vucic and health officials say the mass gatherings are contributing to the surge of the virus.

"I beg you, don't do this so we can save lives," Serbia's Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said Tuesday at a media conference of the government's health team fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.Nihat Bisevac, mayor of the Serbian town of Novi Pazar, declared a day of mourning Tuesday after many lives were lost in town due to the new coronavirus.

In the past few weeks more than 50 people in the town lost their lives due to COVID-19.Loncar said that in the past 24 hours, it has recorded 344 new cases and 13 deaths in the country. That makes a total of more than 4,500 confirmed cases and 418 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

(Image Credit: AP)