Dear reader,
During these unprecedented times, we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
As our daily lives change drastically and in line with our commitment to join the global efforts on fighting this pandemic, NALAS creates a special edition of its traditional Digest, devoted to local response to COVID-19.
The Digest aims to serve as an exchange platform for good practices of local governments in South East Europe and their Associations in combating the COVID-19 outbreak.
We hope that the Digest will encourage and inspire local governments in their immense efforts to protect the health and security of the citizens of South-East Europe and ensure long-term well-being.
Keep safe and contact us for any ideas that you might have.
Enjoy your Digest!
 Marmara Municipalities Union
Crisis Management in municipalities in Turkey
 The crisis management has long been in the agenda of Turkish municipalities, as they experienced different disasters such as earthquakes or floods. Yet, it would not be wrong to say that the situation emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic is novel to them and dictates them to readdress their ways of dealing with the crisis as it is considered that each crisis has its own unique characteristics and different impacts on the society. As we look closer to the Turkish municipalities, we see that some of them have started to reshape their administrative resources and structure in terms of this new situation.
Çorlu Municipality, for example, prepared an Action Plan for Pandemics and have established a Crisis Management Unit for Fighting Against Pandemics which consists of three sub-units and includes 175 staffs. Beyoğlu Municipality likewise opened Coronavirus Crisis Desk and Coordination Centre from which the municipality is directing all their actions against COVID-19. This unit is also receiving the demands from the residents, analysing them and then transmitting them to the respective departments.
On the other hand, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality declared that it has switched to the state of “crisis municipalism” which implies an administrative situation where its ordinary operations and services are adapted to deal with the current crisis. The municipality also issued a directive on 27 March 2020 through which three municipal bodies; namely the Crisis Management Supreme Board, the Crisis Management Executive Board and the Science Board, were established to manage critical situation.
Municipalities’ Activities on Women
According to UN Women, COVID-19 deepens the existing inequalities between men and women as the latter are more vulnerable to the multi-faceted impacts of the COVID-19. One manifestation of this situation is that women in some households are the sole responsible for the house works while they have to work from home.
In order to empower women in these circumstances, several municipalities in Turkey are carrying out activities. As one example of such attempts, Beşiktaş Municipality has launched a social media campaign titled “Equality Starts from Home”. Rıza Akpolat, the Mayor of Beşiktaş Municipality, shared images on gender equality with the tag “EşitlikEvdeBaşlar”(Equality Starts from Home) and stated that there are three unwritten rules in the quarantine times which are as the followings:
- No women’s work, no men’s work; just housework
- Everyone can manage to clean the house
- Taking care of children is a common task of both parents
On the other hand, Bağcılar Municipality has initiated streaming the live programs where municipal psychologists give a live talk on various subjects and answer the questions of women on Instagram and Facebook to support women who have been psychologically impacted from the COVID-19 process.
Municipal Inspections in Public Places
In accordance with the circular issued on 16 March 2020 by the Ministry of Interior, the municipalities across Turkey have been inspecting various public places to see if the rules set in the framework of the fight against COVID-19 are followed. The public security teams from Sultanbeyli Municipality, for instance, have been carrying out regular inspections at the supermarkets and marketplaces in order to ensure that the precautions are followed by the local people. Administrative procedures are applied for those who do not comply with the related rules. 2,616 workplaces, 326 markets and 9 marketplaces were inspected in total. Similarly, in Adalar Municipality, a team is visiting bazaars opened in Heybeliada on every Wednesdays, and controlling if the hygiene and social distancing rules are followed and if people in those places are wearing face masks.
The municipal security teams from Kağıthane Municipality, on the other hand, are regularly inspecting public transports and warning the drivers and passengers to comply with social distancing rules. The drivers are also being recommended to open windows and doors for the ventilation whenever it is possible, and warned not to pick up more passengers than it is legally allowed.
Apart from these examples, many more municipalities such as Çiftlikköy, Kapaklı, Akyazı, Erenler, Arifiye, Dilovası, Kandıra, Nilüfer and Gürsu Municipalities have also been carrying out inspection activities.
 Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia
SOS recommends the use of COVID-19 coronavirus tracker
 Tracker is a self-organized and voluntary project in the frame of which diverse team of experts strive to provide verified, up-to-date and reliable epidemic data. Data is provided through charts and maps in the way that people can easily understand the risk of disease and usefulness of adopted measures. All displays, including a map of infected people by municipalities, a counter of infected people with the growth rate and confirmed infected people in each region, is possible to integrate in simple way (e.g. iframe) for free into every website.
Integration of the tracker was already done by the Government, Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia and other stakeholders. Therefore, the Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia (sl. SOS) had addressed municipalities through weekly-news and publication on the website on how to integrate a tracker with a little IT knowledge on their websites. More detailed instruction on adjusting the size of the charts or showing data for each municipality or town is available here.
In the case of Slovenian municipalities, SOS has just acquired an information from the map about the highest proportion of infected individuals in Slovenia. The highest proportion is in municipality with 1,625% infection rate of the whole population. On the other side there is still 59 municipalities (28%) without any confirmed infections.
Association of Cities in the Republic of Croatia
Interest free loans to local government units for liquidity in crisis
 Deficiencies in the budgets of counties, cities, municipalities and state funds, created through measures to assist the economy and citizens affected by the coronavirus, will be compensated by the State's interest-free loan, according to an instruction issued by the Minister of Finance, Zdravko Marić, after consultation and cooperation with the Association of Cities of the Republic of Croatia.
„This Instruction applies to all local and regional self-government units, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute and the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, which, due to deferred payment and instalment payments, reimbursement or exemption from income tax, surtax and income tax, pursuant to a special regulation governing the general tax procedure reduced revenues.“, said Minister Marić.
The Ministry of Finance has published on its website forms for applying for interest-free loans for local governments and funds.
The Association of Cities further clarifies that credit funds are not loans from commercial banks, but are in nature temporary aid for liquidity from the state budget funds, which for the sake of nature and repayment of assets are recorded on balance sheet as a short-term loan.
The loans have three components:
- Credit in the amount of deferred / rescheduled tax liabilities - the amount is determined in the amount of deferred / rescheduled tax liabilities in accordance with concluded administrative contracts, decisions, tax forms or other sources. Repayment is made by deducting future taxpayer payments for a deferred / rescheduled liability. Local units do not receive these payments or repay annuities, but the withdrawal is carried out by Finance agency based on Tax office's data.
- Annual Tax Credit - Returns to citizens in June in line with previous years. Funds will be allocated to the local units in the amount of annual tax refunds made. Local units need to repay the loan within one year, unlike the previous repayment of 45-60 days. The wait is not defined.
- Credit in the amount of tax liabilities written off. Local units will be credited with tax credits written off. The repayment of this part of the loan will be defined by the Law on Execution of the State Budget for 2021.
Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities
Psychosocial telephone assistance
Citizens of Zvezdara of all generations who need help and support or to talk to someone in a state of emergency can call 3405-906 every workday from 8.00 to 10.00, to submit their request to speak with an expert. Their request and basic information will be forwarded within 24 hours to the expert volunteers of the Zvezdara Volunteer Service who will contact them.
Citizens can also contact the Counselling Services for individuals and families by e-mail: volonterski.servis@zvezdara.org.rs.
In this way, the Counselling Centre of the City Municipality of Zvezdara seeks to help interested citizens to overcome the time of isolation, fear, uncertainty, leisure and loneliness with as little consequences as possible. The assistance of lawyers is also envisaged to provide information in the field of social rights.
Free and professional psychosocial assistance by telephone is intended especially for elderly fellow citizens, families caring for immobile, demented and long-term sick and infirm family members, parents and families with partner and authority problems, to overcome the negative effects on mental health during the state of emergency.
Chinese COVID-19 experts in Niš
A delegation of Chinese COVID-19 experts visited Niš on 22 April to discuss the current epidemiological situation and the effects of the measures implemented in the fight against the Coronavirus with representatives of the City Emergency Management and health care managers.
Chinese experts also visited all medical institutions and temporary hospitals in Niš involved in the fight against the epidemic. The focus was on the procedure and taken measures to counteract and reduce the effects of virus entry into particularly sensitive institutions, such as nursing homes, social institutions and special hospitals, as well as the protection of healthcare professionals.
The undertaken measures and procedures are estimated to be successful, but they must be insisted upon in order to continue the reduction of the number of patients, as well as to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova
CALM Executive Director Viorel Furdui: “This pandemic crisis shows us the undeniable role of local authorities and why it is necessary to move forward on decentralization and local autonomy”
 In this period of pandemic crisis, the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM) operates at maximum capacity. According to CALM Executive Director Viorel Furdui, the main areas addressed by CALM are the decision-making process, policy development and consultation of members. „CALM experts are involved in various processes of approval, development of opinions, addresses on what is happening in the local administration once the state of emergency is established. Now LPA representatives need other types of consultations, such as conducting public procurement, organizing local council meetings, etc.”
Viorel Furdui underlines that now the multiple problems became visible that are generated by the lack of competences of the local authorities, lack of the necessary resources of the LPA to exercise their duties, etc. "This crisis has shown once again how important local public authorities are, how necessary it is to move forward in the field of LPA reforms, in order to strengthen local financial and human capacities."
At the same time, the executive director of CALM highlighted the fact that during this period most of the responsibility is on the shoulders of local public authorities. "Even when there is a lack of specialists and resources at the local level, mayors manage to exercise their powers in the most honest and effective way and contribute to an essential extent to achieving all necessary measures to counter this pandemic," said Viorel Furdui.
In this regard, CALM has developed several addresses requesting the National Commission for Exceptional Situations various interpretations, but also proposes solutions so that local public authorities can more easily exercise their duties. Another direction of activity during this period was the cooperation with the central authorities on the dissemination of information, but also the proper information of the LPA regarding the multiple documents prepared by the bodies responsible for managing this crisis. "There are many orders, instructions, protocols that, for some reason, do not reach the local public authorities in time and so in the work process there are many questions, problems related to how local authorities should behave in certain situations and what are the possibilities to solve the multitude of these problems."
In this context, CALM in partnership with UNDP, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization organized several video conferences with majority of mayors of the Republic of Moldova. "Although we had little time to inform the LPA representatives about the organization of these events and a fairly intensive schedule, we believe that they were successful actions, because for the first time, at the level of the entire republic such actions took place with the participation of over one thousand of mayors, district presidents and other city officials", explained the executive director of CALM. Thus, the LPA representatives had the opportunity to find out more information from the decision-makers of the Ministry of Health and WHO, but also to ask questions and get answers to various complicated situations they face.
"In addition, as a result of these actions, the multiple questions to which the answers have not been identified at that time will be analysed, structured and presented to the central authorities to be solved."
Also, the other day, CALM in partnership with the project Ma Implic (funded by the Government of Switzerland) distributed disinfectants and protective equipment for 50 LPAs from the Republic of Moldova. These municipalities were selected according to very clear criteria; in particular the number of people infected with COVID-19 was taken into account. In this case, the intention was to support LPA representatives, those who are directly involved in these activities and who need safer working conditions.
The executive director of CALM expressed his hope that after this crisis, the rulers of the Republic of Moldova will start looking at LPA with different eyes and it will finally be understood that it is necessary to move towards decentralization and local autonomy so that LPAs can fully engage and contribute to managing and overcoming such crisis situations.
Example of solidarity! Diaspora from abroad send lots of masks, gloves and disinfectants to Colibasi!
During this period of hard time for our society, the natives of Colibasi municipality, Cahul district, whom life has taken away from their parents' house, are with their countrymen. The first donation for Colibasi since the decree of state of emergency in the Republic of Moldova in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 came from the family of Liviu and Aliona Cojan from Great Britain. Thus, four thousand tubes of disinfectants arrived in Colibasi. Also, this family donated an ambulance to their hometown last year.
Dumitru Fana, another villager settled in France, donated 6,000 pairs of gloves, masks, disinfectants, etc. This lot arrived in Colibasi through charter flights organized during this period. The mayor's office took it over and distributed it, first of all, to the medical institutions. Mayor Ion Dolganiuc mentioned that the Colibasi Health Center operates in the locality, which serves also for another two localities (11 thousand people), as well as the emergency medical assistance station. Also, beneficiaries of this lot were the employees of the grocery stores and public institutions from the locality. The other day, as a result of the decision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations of Cahul district, 110 food packages were purchased and distributed to people who are part of the socially vulnerable categories in Colibasi. Such packages were distributed to all town halls in Cahul district.
A person infected with COVID-19 was confirmed in Colibasi. The person has healed and no new cases have been reported so far. According to the mayor, people understood that they have to follow the rules imposed by the authorities, and this makes them believe that together they will be able to overcome this difficult period.
Another concern of the local elected official is the impossibility of the vegetable producers from Colibasi to sell their goods as all markets are closed. "Many villagers grow vegetables early and now have nowhere to sell them. Some had to throw away the spring radishes. We try to promote online the products of our producers. ", stated Ion Dolganiuc.
Association of Communes of Romania
Responsibility is the key to success!
Starting on 21 April 2020, the Mayor of Jurilovca commune, Tulcea County, Mr. Eugen ION informed its citizens that the city hall will start to distribute medical masks on the field to all the inhabitants of the communes: Sălcioara, Vișina and Jurilovca.
For each of the 2387 households, 5 masks will be distributed, to be used in the outings of strict necessity. Given that the purchase of protective masks was started at a time of blockage of the national market, their procurement took longer than they’ve expected.
The Mayor shared: “Thank you all for respecting the rules imposed by the military ordinances in force and I hope we all come out of this period healthy and strong!”
 National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria
Monitoring of the measures taken by the municipalities during the state of emergency
NAMRB Managing Board decided to make a survey and analysis of the data about the reflection of the COVID-19 crisis upon the municipal budgets.
The data from the analysis will be taken into account when developing concrete proposals for compensatory measures and mechanisms to minimize the negative effects on the work of the municipalities. In addition, three letters with specific proposals for support to the municipalities during the state of emergency were sent to the Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov and Minister of Environment and Water Emil Georgiev.
Immediately after the announcement of the first cases of coronavirus infected in the country, municipalities took a number of measures to protect the population and limit the spread of the virus. Following the declaration of the state of emergency in the country, the local governments mobilized significant resource - human and financial – to fully implement the orders of the health authorities and to create organization for preserving the health and safety of citizens without affecting the everyday activities of the municipal administrations.
The tasks assigned to the municipalities in relation to the anti-epidemic measures and monitoring exceed by far the funds planned in the municipal budgets, and reserves in many places are exhausted.
Disinfection of public buildings and public spaces, incl. and public spaces - streets, sidewalks, stops, parks, etc., engages additional human resources and is performed at a much higher frequency and with specific disinfectants, especially in municipalities with higher number of infected citizens. Municipalities as employers have organized anti-epidemic measures in the work premises. For objective reasons, these disinfection activities were not planned in the 2020 budgets.
In 79 municipal hospitals, 233 beds were allocated for intensive treatment and monitoring of patients with COVID-19, following the Order of Minister of Health. A total of 2 908 beds are provided for patients without complications. In many places, the implementation of the order was related to unscheduled repairs and reconstructions on the territory of municipal health facilities, which were supported by funds from municipal budgets.
The strict safeguard measures introduced also require specific organization for the safe collection and treatment of waste / masks, clothing, packaging of chemicals and medicines, etc.
Each municipality had to set up the organization for the functioning of the cooperative and farmer's markets, taking into account the specifics such as location, capacity and number of producers. Municipalities also ensured teams for keeping the order and control in the markets.
During the state of emergency and up to three months after its abolition, the mayors are not entitled, to close or reduce the capacity of social services delegated by the state due to lack of users, with the exception of specialized institutions for children. It should be noted that social distancing requirements led to a significant increase in the number of people being cared for by the municipal social services. Volunteers’ teams for food and medicine delivery were mobilized in all municipalities. At the same time the municipalities at their own expense provide volunteers, engaged staff and senior citizens with protective equipment, fuel, vehicles and provide logistics.
Currently, according to the municipalities, due to the postponement of the deadlines for payment of real estate taxes and taxes on vehicles with a 5% discount and the actually frozen process of trade deals with properties, the revenues have significantly decreased compared to the same period of previous years. In large municipalities, there was a sevenfold decrease, while in the rest - between 6 and 35%, compared to the same period last year. The slip in the revenues from municipal property management and disposal is also worrying. The capital Sofia has a BGN 19 million decline in revenues in the last two weeks of March alone, while in urban transport it is down by about BGN 3 million a week.
Led by their acute social reactivity, the municipalities have adopted packages of relief measures to facilitate business, which have been forced to suspend or significantly curtail business. They are related to exemption from rents for activities performed in municipal properties, markets, shops, etc., exemption from fees to use municipal public areas for removable objects on sidewalk, in parks, etc. during the state of emergency, as well as abolition of payment for paid parking areas.
The limited powers of mayors to respond quickly to coordinate changes to the public transport timetable have led to losses for both transport companies and municipalities as contracting authorities for the service.
According to the announced anti-epidemic measures, visits to municipal theatres, gyms, museums, or the organization of public and cultural events were ceased. The income from the sale of tickets and rents of these facilities is now terminated, affecting negatively the municipal budgets.
The municipalities with touristic profile also suffer significant losses. The suspension of activity in the sector directly affects the municipalities that own or manage cultural and historical sites in their territory. The activity of the tourist and information centres, which in the individual municipalities are either part of the administration or municipal companies and under normal conditions with good economic indicators, has been completely discontinued.
Municipalities are already taking steps to update their budgets and reduce their investment programs. NAMRB insists that timely action be taken to support the municipalities in this difficult situation, since the shortage of liquidity has been growing every day.
The first package of proposals was sent by the Association at the stage of discussion of the budget update and the draft of the State of Emergency Act: Preferential regime for granting temporal interest-free loans for municipalities; Possibilities to transfer funds from Winter Maintenance reserve for anti-epidemic measures and use remaining funds from previous years and transfer them through a lighter procedure; Possibility for Municipal Commercial Enterprises to apply for credits before the Bulgarian Bank for development; ban on the attachment of bank accounts of municipalities for the period of emergency.
Efforts continue with the preparation of a survey and analysis of the measures taken by municipalities during the state of emergency and their implication on the budgets, covering the period from 13 March till 30 April. Information that will be collected is as follows:
- Impact of the crisis on the revenue side of municipal budgets, compared to the same period last year (local tax and fees revenues and revenues and revenues from property management are examined);
- Additional expenditures from municipal budgets incurred in connection with the implementation of the orders of the Minister of Health.
Association of Kosovo Municipalities
AKM Executive Director visits Municipality of Gjilan
 The Executive Director of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM) Mr. Sazan Ibrahimi visited the Municipality of Gjilan where he was received by the Mayor Mr. Lutfi Haziri and his associates.NMayor Haziri informed the Director of AKM about the situation in the municipality of Gjilan about COVID-19 and generally by the Municipal Emergency Headquarters about the Municipal Action Plan for the prevention of COVID-19.
On the other hand, Director Ibrahimi informed Mayor Haziri and members of the Municipal Emergency Staff about the activities of the AKM in support of municipalities in terms of coordination with the central level and for the beginning of implementation of the Emergency Fiscal Package for municipalities. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Haziri thanked Mr. Ibrahimi for the activities of the AKM and as a sign of gratitude handed an acknowledgment for support and coordination of commitments during this time of COVID-19 pandemic.
With the request of AKM, municipalities are allowed to carry on their ongoing works in infrastructural investments and maintenance services
Based on the request of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, municipalities have been allowed to work on several ongoing projects which have started earlier, such as capital investments, investments in infrastructure, construction and maintenance of services.
The Mayors through AKM requested to the Ministry of Economy, Employment, Trade, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Investments to make changes in some codes in the Nomenclature of Activity Classification by Economy (NACE) and to allow municipal activities in the field of infrastructure investment and maintenance but always within the measures and standards required by the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to the request, it is stated: "After consulting with Ministry of Economy, Employment, Trade, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Investments (MEETIESI) and Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA), you are asked to send the specific requests from the Mayors for certain Economic Operators in their Municipalities to MEETIESI for reasons of saving time in relation to giving an adequate and fast response. In the following, you are asked that in the relevant request you emphasize the need of the Public behind the justification for allowing certain economic activity. The allowance of Economic Activity after approval will be issued on behalf of the business on the basis of the Business Number for the performance of specific works (individual permit) only within the economic activity that will be performed by the Economic Operator".
AKM and MLGA representatives meet for implementation of measures against COVID-19 pandemic
A joint coordination meeting was held between the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA), Mrs. Fatbardha Emini, General Secretary of MLGA Mrs. Rozafa Ukimeraj and the Executive Director of AKM, Mr. Sazan Ibrahimi, on the occasion of which they discussed the implementation of measures by municipalities against COVID-19 virus and the challenges and management of the situation in general.
It was also emphasized that this coordination will continue in terms of providing assistance and support to municipalities.
The implementation of the fiscal emergency package started in Kosovo* municipalities
With the beginning of the implementation of the measure 15 of the Emergency Fiscal Package, its implementation in practice begins, in the municipalities of Kosovo.
The Ministry of Finance and Transfers (MFT) in a letter to the Mayors has requested the implementation of this measure in the municipalities of Kosovo.
The MFT letter states: “As you are informed, the Government of the Republic of Kosovo has approved the Emergency Fiscal Package as a necessity of the institutional response against COVID-19 pandemic. One of these measures of this package is also measure 15." This measure says that the payment of monthly assistance in the amount of 130 Euros for citizens with severe social conditions, declared unemployed in the competent institution, who are not beneficiaries of any monthly income from the Kosovo Budget, for April, May and June, worth up to three million Euros.
The Ministry of Finance and Transfers further adds "in accordance with the legal competencies of municipalities, we ask the Mayors of the Republic of Kosovo to engage staff in the Centres for Social Work to accept applications from parties entitled to benefit from this measure".
Also, within this announcement, information is provided for the families that can benefit, the preconditions that must be met by the applicant for the benefit, the application method, the application deadline, the explanations for completing the application and the information for submitting the application.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Centar Municipality-Sarajevo donated thermal cameras to the BiH Border Police
On 15 April, Centar Municipality donated three manual medical thermal cameras for body temperature measurement, as well as stationary cameras for contactless body temperature measurement, to the BiH Border Police.
This local community is the first in BiH to allocate KM 100,000 from its budget in response to a call by Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic to secure financial resources for addressing the migrant crisis.
Mayor Ajnadzic emphasized that with this highly sophisticated equipment, Centar Municipality is contributing to the achievement of better results by the BiH Border Police. This equipment will now be used to combat the coronavirus pandemic, while in the post-pandemic time it will be used for other operational tasks being put before our border guards in the field of security. We also intend to provide one new off-road vehicle for the BiH Border Police. We intend to donate this kind of thermal camera system to the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo tomorrow. I hope that this equipment will be used for the mentioned purposes as soon as possible, explained Mayor Ajnadzic.
Novo Sarajevo Municipality Provided Funds for Respiratory Supplies for General Hospital “Prim.dr. Abdulah Nakash” and the Clinical Centre of the University of Sarajevo(KCUS)
The Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, through the Civil Protection Service, in accordance with the Decision of the Civil Protection Headquarters, has allocated KM 140,000 for the procurement of two respirators for two Sarajevo hospitals in order to help combat the spread of the virus corona epidemic.
In his address, Mayor Nedzad Koldzo said that one of the decisions of the Civil Protection Headquarters was to direct part of the funds towards these two primary medical institutions in the Sarajevo Canton. ”By allocating these funds, we, as a local community, want, not only declaratively, but also practically to assist in the procurement of equipment for General Hospital and KCUS, especially what is the priority today when it comes to the treatment of patients with coronary viruses, which is procurement respirators about which there has been much controversy in the public recently”, said Mayor Koldzo.
Union of Municipalities of Montenegro
185 residents and employees of the home for the elderly quarantined
Employees of the home for the elderly in Bijelo Polje municipality have been quarantined together with 185 users of this institution for a month now. The crisis headquarters of the home for the elderly had made such a decision at the very outset of the COVID-19 virus, aware of the danger of the virus entering the institution.
“The management of the home for the elderly is aware of the sacrifice of the employees, but this is the only way to come out of this fight as winners. They have everything they need in the institution. Our kitchen works, we have all the protective equipment, we take strict care of the delivery of food, we keep residents and employees at the distance that is needed, and there’s no fear that someone will bring the virus from the outside” – says the Director of the home Mr. Pavicevic, adding that “The isolation will continue all while the danger of coronary virus persists. Residents communicate with their families over the phone and we do our best to keep their activities running regularly and without fear or panic”.
A number of measures were taken to prevent the virus from occurring in this nursing home. The space for isolation was provided, wearing of equipment is mandatory, hygiene measures are increased and visits are banned. Seven specialist physicians are currently working in the nursing home, one of which is an epidemiologist, and in consultation with him, all protection measures are being taken.
185 users from all over Montenegro currently reside in the Bijelo Polje’s home for the elderly, who are currently stable and have no cases of coronary virus disease.
Ongoing Activities
- NALAS e-Academy: Disaster Risk Management
- NALAS e-Academy: Introduction to Asset Management in the Water Sector
Upcoming Events
- 11 May 2020, NALAS e-Academy: Introduction to Gender Mainstreaming at Local Level
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