Over 47 thousand fines for contempt of anti-Condavid law

The wearing of the mask, the ban on gastronomy work after 23:30, and the ban on music from 9: 00 p.m. on subjects offering gastronomy services (restants, coffee and similar), are some of the measures the Government of Kosovo has decided to prevent corruption from spreading.

The Bureau for Information in the Kosovo Police through an answer for Kosova Prees, has announced that from the day the Law for Combating COVID-19 has been enacted 47 thousand and 312 fines. For the figures, mostly violators of the Law for the Prevention and Combat of COVID-19, have been identified in the Pristina municipality, which leads to a total of 12,000 and 432 fines, followed by the city of Pec with a total of 7838, Prizren with 6838 and so on.

Below, you find the sign with the municipalities listed in which police units have pronounced fines for all those who did not comply with the antiCondive law.

The head of the Kosovo Communists Association, Saban Ibrahimi, has said that Kosovo citizens have been conscious and are respecting anti-Covid measures, but adds that seeing the last few days have increased cases of corruption have agreed not to have forgiveness for violators.

Ibrahim claims that the mobilization of all responsible institutions is required in order not to be put to the strictness of the measures.

If the measures had not been respected, we would have had an extremely high number of infected people, but because they're being respected, mask bearing, social distance and personal hygiene are being respected, that's why we have a happy number because even with this we shouldn't be content but we should ask that this number fall away. In general, the situation is under control, manageable, and all measures in most cases are being respected. There are times where we still have weddings, we have times where gastronomy hosts music parties, there are times when some locals do not abide by the rules and they have been warned, but there will no longer be a pardon”, Ibrahim said.

The head of the Kosovo Communists Association declares that the means from fines imposed by Kosovo Police members for disrespect of measures to prevent the spread of pandemic will go to the municipal budget.

The subx0ms from fines pronounced by Kosovo Police go automatism to municipal budgets because it is regulated by law, other means can go to Kosovo's budget, but then budgetary sharing formulas exist, through specific grants”, Ibrahim said.

And less fines have pronounced the Sanitary Inspectorate operating under the Food and Veterinary Agency.

AUV spokesman Lamir Thaci said that only for September alone since this law has entered force, the Sanitary inspectors have pronounced 110 fines for citizens, while about 80 businesses have been fined.

“On the ground we have noted that with the law's entry into force, continued implementation on the part of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo because we have had a greater number of authorities who have taken the right to declare punishment measures for all violators. Only for September alone because the law's entry into force occurred at the end of August, and for the month of September alone, we have 110 fines pronounced for physical persons and about 80 fines for legal persons, in this case for businesses that have violated decisions made by the government”, he said.

It has listed the most frequent violations that businesses and citizens are committing to measures for non-proliferation.

From the monitoring we've made for the prescribed fines for violators we've noted that initially the number of major violations was from the number of businesses that didn't respect the ban on service in closed environments when the decision was in effect, then we've even had restrictions on moving within hours with government decisions. And we had cases when inspectors pronounced fines for not wearing a mask or even physical distance, whether between physical persons or tables where clients” were served, Thaci stressed.

The Law for Prevention and Combating COVID-19 provides punishment for all those who do not respect the measures imposed by the Government of Kosovo. Every person who does not wear the mask is sentenced to 35 euros, while the one who does not respect the ban is meant to be sentenced to 200 euros. Those who do not respect the isolation will be sentenced to 500 euros.

In recent weeks when infection curves are growing in Europe, and when closing measures and quarantine are returning to those high-risk infection sites, Health Minister Andmend Zemaj has requested increased inspections and countering fines under the Law for combating the RS-19 pandemic for all those who fail to implement the measures.