This would be “a serious violation” of the laws of the country.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic warned that if Novak Djokovic skipped the mandatory fourteen-day isolation for contracting COVID, it would be “a serious violation” of the country’s laws.
The Serbian tennis player admitted to having attended a face-to-face interview on December 18 in Belgrade despite the fact that he knew he had been infected with covid because “it was a commitment for a long time” and so as not to “look bad with the journalist.”
This goes against the legislation against the covid that Serbia had at that time, which forced those infected to keep a fourteen-day quarantine. Djokovic underwent a PCR on December 16, but assured that he did not know the result until the 17th, despite the fact that the documents of the laboratory that carried out the test revealed that they reported the positive just a few hours after taking the test.
“If you are positive, you have to isolate yourself,” Brnabic said in an interview with the BBC. “I don’t know when he got the results and when he saw them. That’s a gray area that only Novak can answer,” he added.
The prime minister assured that, if it is proven that the tennis player failed to comply with the rules against covid, he will have to face the authorities and medical bodies in charge of drafting said legislation.
Djokovic is already free in Australia and has been able to train these days in Melbourne Park, but he is waiting to know the decision of the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, who has the authority to cancel the Serbian’s visa and request his deportation another time.
Brnabic said he hopes Djokovic can stay in Australia and play in the tournament, but added that he does not agree with the Serb’s decision not to be vaccinated.
“What matters to me is that we support Novak but, at the same time, for both the country and me, vaccination is something very important and the only way to end this pandemic,” said the prime minister. (I)
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