Makarević: 54 BiH citizens stranded in Norway, three infected, flight reservations for May 2

(Patria) - Nedim Makarević, BiH ambassador to Norway, spoke on social media regarding BiH citizens infected with coronavirus.

"The number of those infected with the Corona virus in Norway as of April 2, 2020 continues to rise and now stands at 4,879 positive cases. The number of deaths has increased to 48, and the number of hospitalized is 320. There are 105 seriously ill patients in intensive care.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has opened an 'online tool' page on the Internet, where anyone who suspects they have symptoms similar to the Corona virus can register. So far, 51,000 people have registered on that page.

The Director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bjorn Guldvog, expressed mild optimism in his statement regarding the last few days, when the rate of new infections decreased and has ranged from 160 to 220 people per day in the last three days.

He said that many charts on mortality, the number of new infections and recoveries show stable trends, i.e., there are no exponential growth trends. It is still too early to predict future trends, but the Norwegian Institute believes that the situation in Norway, compared to other countries, is significantly better, mortality is significantly lower compared to other countries, and the percentage of infected with mild symptoms out of the total infected is 98%.

Due to the cancellation of flights from Norway abroad, there are currently 54 of our citizens in Norway who are unable to return to BiH and are holders of Schengen visas. Most of our citizens are visiting their relatives, and so far we have no reported cases of anyone being existentially threatened due to the inability to return to BiH," Makarević stated.

The Embassy has prepared a list of all our citizens who have expressed a desire to return to BiH before regular flights from Oslo resume. The Embassy is cooperating on this issue with the Crisis Staff of our Ministry and expects the transport of our citizens to BiH to be realized.

"The Norwegian airline Norwegian has started accepting reservations for the Oslo – Sarajevo flight for May 2, 2020, believing that the situation will normalize by then, and a large number of our citizens have already booked tickets for this flight.

Given the development of the situation, it is unlikely that this flight will be realized at this time.

We have a report that three BiH citizens in Norway are infected with the Corona virus," Makarević points out.