The pandemic is not over, but the healthcare system can take the pressure at the moment, which is why the covid response team has proposed lifting almost all public health protection protocols, according to Commission for Infectious Diseases head Aleksandar Petlickovski in a TV appearance Friday. He also said health authorities were considering opening a post-Covid clinic, since the coronavirus could cause damage to the nervous system, blood vessels, and the liver.

“We are thinking about organizing a clinic or institution that will be oriented towards dealing with post-Covid symptoms,” Petlickovski told Sitel TV.

Speaking about the situation in hospitals, he said: “Those who end up hospitalized always have some underlying conditions. There are also people whose comorbidities are discovered during hospitalization.”

On lifting the indoor mask mandate for public spaces, he said masks were still mandatory on public transit such as taxi cabs because the chance of getting infected in a cab was higher than getting infected in a supermarket.

Petlickovski also explained the mask mandate was not being lifted for hospitals and pharmacies so they would be safer for vulnerable citizens.

Although interest in vaccination has waned, he said “a more intense campaign explaining the benefits of vaccines” would be launched in the fall, ahead of a possible new wave of infections.

“I think we will have a peaceful few months and we will see what happens in the fall,” he said.