January the 4th, 2021 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been the topic of endless conversation since it began last year. With measures still in place, could Istria County have plans to get things moving again?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, since the beginning of the pandemic, those in the hospitality and catering sector have been among the most vocal against the repeated an ever strict anti-epidemiological measures and closures. They say that this crisis has brought them to the very brink when it comes to survival, local portal Glas Istre writes.
Recently, the Chief of the Istrian Civil Protection Headquarters announced that he would request an exemption for Istria County from some measures from January the 8th, which means that then, the county's deeply harmed hospitality and catering facilities might start working again. The president of the Guild of Caterers of Istria County, Stanislav Briskoski, explained that talks on this very topic were in progress last Tuesday morning, when they were interrupted by the horrendous news of the earthquake which struck the now severely damaged Sisak-Moslavina County.
''The original date that was defined referred to December the 21st, but the measures continued indefinitely after that, without a specific date by which they could remain in force. It is in the interest of all of us to improve the epidemiological situation. Now, due to the new situation, we'll all focus on helping Petrinja, Sisak and the surrounding areas in any way, but soon, we're going to be sitting at the table with the authorities and negotiating the possibilities and a potential date for when things can start opening up again. I think we're all interested in the results of what was planned to be done by closing these facilities and whether anything did come to fruition, and to see what we will do and how we can proceed.
Those in the catering and hospitality sector suffered tremendous economic losses throughouth 2020, and January and February should not even be taken into account, as these are always quite weak months due to Croatia's seasonality anyway.
''Even with a weaker tourist season, we were doing well and everything was fine until Istria was placed on the red list back in mid-August. Then there was an extreme drop in guests that we didn't deserve at all,'' concluded Istria County's Stanislav Briskoski.
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