MONTENEGRO will open its borders to nationals of all Western Balkan countries on Saturday, and they will need to have a negative PCR or ELISA serology test to enter the country, the head of the Montenegrin Public Health Institute, Boban Mugosa, said on Friday.

"Tomorrow we are opening our borders with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia," Mugosa said.

Montenegro declared an end to the epidemic in late May and already at the start of June it completely opened its borders to nationals of countries with fewer than 25 active cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 residents, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, while borders with Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia remained closed due to the poor epidemiological situation in those countries.

This prompted angry reactions from Belgrade, with senior Serbian officials calling on Serbian nationals not to spend their holidays in Montenegro as they "are evidently not welcome there."

The border with Bosnia and Herzegovina did not remain open for long because Montenegrin passengers used the possibility to travel through that country to Serbia and return to Montenegro without having been registered as having travelled to Serbia, in order to avoid quarantine.

That way, dozens of Montenegrin nationals in mid-June attended a football match in Belgrade, bringing home the infection, and in a short time Montenegro turned from a coronavirus-free country into a country with the highest number of active cases per 100,000 residents.

Since June 14, when the second wave of the infection started, more than 3,500 people have become infected and 64 have died. Currently there are 1,104 active cases of the infection. During the first wave, which lasted from mid-March to early May, Montenegro had only 324 cases of the infection and nine fatalities.