COVID-19 Death in Novi Pazar - "Serbian Bergamo"

Serbia was one of the countries in Europe and the world that were most affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. City Novi Pazar was the greatest coronavirus hotspot in Europe on July 1, 2020, due to several hundred infected people. Even though united data were published at the state level, there are no data by region or city, so the interpretation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Serbia at the regional level is difficult. Different levels of health care and health education of citizens and the degree of respect for the proposed epidemiological measures have led to significant differences in the number of tests, a large number of infected, and several deaths by regions and cities. Insufficiently precise and up-to-date keeping of records and statistical data on COVID-19 at the state and local level also complicates the pandemic's scientific and epidemiological analysis. Novi Pazar is a city in southwestern Serbia with a population of 100,000. It is similar in population to the city of Bergamo, in northern Italy in the Lombardy region. As of July 1, 2020, Novi Pazar had 300% higher mortality per 100,000 population compared with the same month last year, and almost 10 times higher mortality than the rest of Serbia.