Serbian president coughs through coronavirus press conference

Eyebrows were raised when the president of a European nation spluttered while being asked a question about coronavirus.

Serbia’s president has coughed uncontrollably during a press conference on coronavirus.

Aleksandar Vucic was filmed coughing into a hanky as a reporter asked him about the pandemic sweeping the world.

On Friday, Serbia recorded its first confirmed case of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and the government ordered the health ministry to establish a quarantine for migrants.

During the press conference Mr Vucic pledged that he will not allow his country to be used by migrants attempting to reach the EU.

The Serbian president coughing uncontrollably as a journalist asks him a question about #Coronavirus.

😲pic.twitter.com/IU0yVA1qd6

— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) March 12, 2020

RELATED: Follow the latest coronavirus updates

RELATED: 11 biggest coronavirus questions  

RELATED: Countries coronavirus has been confirmed

The Balkan nation has now barred all indoor gatherings and will close small border crossings.

“(Health) controls at major border crossings will be stepped up and some small border crossings will be closed,” Mr Vucic said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaking on Wednesday in Belgrade, the country’s capital. Picture: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic.

The Serbian president then had a coughing fit.

But when a reporter quizzed him specifically about the impacts of COVID-19 on the nation of seven million, the President became overcome in a coughing fit.

As the journalist asked her question, Mr Vucic continued to splutter. The episode lasted at least 20 seconds.

Across the world there are now 128,343 confirmed cases of coronavirus and there have been 4720 deaths.

The has officially declared coronavirus a pandemic.

“The World Health Organisation has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva early on Thursday morning.

“We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic.”

The organisation defines pandemic as “an outbreak of a new pathogen that spreads easily from person to person across the globe”.

But Dr Tedros warned the word should not cause “unreasonable fear”, saying more than 90 per cent of the world’s cases were still in just four countries: China, South Korea, Italy and Iran.