“Dr Milan Jovanović Batut” Institute of Public Health of Serbia

The state public health institute that ran the COVID data system. Responding to BIRN's request, it used the full 40-day deadline and supplied an official figure of 244 deaths up to 1 June 2020, while its director, Verica Jovanović, refused to answer questions about the discrepancy in the numbers. Deputy director Darija Kisić Tepavčević publicly claimed that a journalist who had written about the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina had published "absolutely untrue" information.

Affairs

• Arrest of Ana Lalić over an article on the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina
• COVID death data hidden ahead of the elections: In response to a freedom of information request, he said that 244 patients had died by 1 June, although the Covid19 system he runs had recorded 632
• NITES: contracts of the firm of Kuburović's husband and Kisić Tepavčević's brother

People

• Darija Kisić Tepavčević: deputy director of the “Dr Milan Jovanović Batut” Institute of Public Health
• Verica Jovanović: acting director of the Dr Milan Jovanović Batut Institute of Public Health