BIRN Fact-Check: Is COVID-19 Killing More Health Workers in Serbia than Elsewhere?

Since the turn of the year debate has been raging in Serbia over how authorities have marshalled medical resources in the fight against COVID-19 and whether enough has been done to protect frontline doctors and nurses.

Some doctors have cited data from the Union of Medical and Pharmaceutical Workers of Serbia to claim that Serbia has the worst rate of COVID-19 fatalities among health workers in the region.

"There should be an investigation into why mortality among doctors in Serbia is higher than anywhere else in the region, how it's done, how long their shifts last," Doctor Valentina Ljubic Beganovic told reporters during a small protest of medical workers in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on January 10.

While there are significant questions to be answered concerning the protection offered to frontline staff in Serbia, a BIRN analysis of the available data shows that, while a considerable number of medical workers have died in the country, the picture is worse in Kosovo and North Macedonia and worrying too in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria.

However, the data for Serbia, as with most other countries, is incomplete.

Intensive care medical workers wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) attend to patients at the Dragisa Misovic hospital intensive care unit in Belgrade, Serbia, 04 May 2020. EPA-EFE/MARKO DJOKOVIC

'We will not stop asking questions'

According to the latest data from the Batut Public Health Institute, Serbia has 100,880 health workers.

The Union of Medical and Pharmaceutical Workers estimates that, as of January 18, a total of 80 have died of COVID-19, though it says the real number is higher given that the Health Ministry has not handed over figures for...