Last night, Montenegro became the second country in Europe to officially report they are free of active COVID-19 cases.

Montenegro has now joined the Faroe Islands the only two European countries to have zero active cases of the coronavirus.

The government of Montenegro made the announcement publicly last night on their official Twitter account.

“#Montenegro is #CoronaFree. There are no more #COVID19 cases,” the tweet stated.

The Montenegrin government also published the news on their official government website, declaring, “there are no more people infected with the novel coronavirus in Montenegro.”

To date, the nation’s strategy to continue minimizing coronavirus risk has involved gradually loosening restrictions, with safety measures remaining in place, such as a ban on public gatherings, and the requirement to wear masks in all public enclosed spaces such as shops or banks, and social distancing obligations.

According to a study published on May 2 by IPSOS, 80 percent of Montenegrins agreed with the cautious easing of coronavirus restrictions; with more than half of the country’s citizens reporting they were concerned that they or a loved one could contract COVID-19.

At the beginning of May, Prime Minister Duško Marković attributed the country’s effective containment of the coronavirus to a proactive, professional and unified approach, noting that Montenegro’s Public Health Institute had begun implementing procedures before COVID-19 had been detected in Europe.

Earlier this month the Montenegrin government had expressed concern that violations of public health orders from mass gatherings held on May 12 and 13 may have compromised the nation’s COVID-19 containment progress, however no new cases of infection have been recorded since May 5.

A total of 324 cases of the coronavirus infection have been reported in the country since March 17, with 315 having recovered.

Montenegro was the last European nation to record its first confirmed coronavirus case, and is the first Balkan state to become free of active cases of COVID-19./sarajevotimes.com

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