ZAGREB, Dec 14, 2020 - Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who is at the helm of the Croatia's national coronavirus crisis management team, said on Monday that the team would hammer out a new framework of anti-COVID measures this week.

"Intensive talks are underway, consideration is given to everything," the minister told a news conference in Zagreb.

This week some concrete answers will be given to the questions what can be done to make sure that coronavirus numbers start declining, Bozinovic said announcing more precise measures, while answering the question if passes could be expected.

He said that he could understand that all would like to see the predictability of moves.

I must underscore that some countries have announced the easing of the restrictions in this period only to make them stricter. Some countries have announced tougher restrictions but eventually eased them, he said in his comment on predictability.

ZAGREB, Dec, 2020- Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ)  head Krunoslav Capak said on Monday that Croatia last week registered a twofold increase in new COVID-19 cases and that the country's epidemiological situation was the worst in the European Union.

According to Capak, from December 7 to 13, Croatia registered a 7.5% increase in the number of new infections compared to a 3.7% increase in the week before that.

The incidence rate in the entire Croatia is high, but the differences between counties are considerable, with Medjimurje County reporting the highest and Dubrovnik-Neretva County the lowest incidence rate.

We are in the last place in the EU when it comes to the number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, Capak said. As for the mortality rate, we are in the 16th place of the 27 EU countries, with 628.5 deaths per a million inhabitants.

Capak also said that today people in self-isolation account for 40% of the new infections.

"This shows that the system of searching for contact has not fallen apart despite operating with difficulties due to a large number of new infections," he added.

Vaccination programme by end of week

Asked about the number of health workers that want to be vaccinated, Capak confirmed the unofficial data that slightly more than 50% of health workers want to, adding that they are still collecting data on that.

He stressed that the vaccination campaign had already started, and by the end of the week the government would adopt a vaccination programme although it was not yet known when the vaccines would arrive and be distributed.

In the coming days, science conferences on vaccination will be organised, and there will also be a media campaign.

Asked about people who will not be able to get vaccinated, the head of Zagreb's Dr Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, said that that would be apply to people allergic to a vaccine ingredient.

She added that they expected there would be very few such cases and that people should get informed on their own about their allergic reactions to medicines.

Croatia reports 1,472 new coronavirus cases, 65 deaths in last 24 hours

Croatia has registered 1,472 new coronavirus cases and 65 infection-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Monday morning.

A total of 2,857 infected people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 and 284 of them are on ventilators. Currently, there are 22,769 active cases in the country and 54,042 people are in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 177,358 people have been infected with the novel virus, 2,705 of them have died and 151,884 have recovered, including 3,673 in the last 24 hours.

December 14, 2020 - Dinamo Zagreb meets Krasnodar in the last 32 of the Europa League competition. 

The Europa League round of 32 draw was held in Nyon on Monday, in which Dinamo drew Russian club Krasnodar as its opponent in the knockout phase of the competition.

As the winner of Group K, Dinamo had the seeded-status along with the other 11 group winners and the four best third-placed teams from the Champions League. As a seeded team, the Croatian champion will have the home-field-advantage so that the first match will be played in Russia on February 18, and the return match on February 25 at Maksimir Stadium.

Krasnodar is currently the eighth-ranked club in the Russian league. Krasnodar found a spot in the Europea League's round of 32 by finishing third in Group E of the Champions League, behind Chelsea and Sevilla, and ahead of Rennes. They won five points in that group, which was not enough for them to be seeded in today's draw.

This season's Europa League final is on May 26 in Gdansk.

Seeded Clubs: Roma, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Rangers, PSV, Napoli, Leicester City, Milan, Villarreal, Tottenham, DINAMO, Hoffenheim te Manchester United, Club Brugge, Shahktar, Ajax

Un-seeded clubs: Young Boys, Molde, Slavia, Benfica, Granada, Real Sociedad, Braga, Lille, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Royal Antwerp, Wolfsberger, Crvena zvezda te Krasnodar, RB Salzburg, Dynamo Kijev, Olympiakos

Round of 32 draw:

Wolfsberger - Tottenham
Dinamo Kijev - Club Brugge
Real Sociedad - Manchester United
Benfica - Arsenal
Crvena Zvezda - Milan
Royal Antwerp - Rangers
Slavia Prag - Leicester
Red Bull Salzburg - Villarreal
Braga - Roma
Krasnodar - Dinamo Zagreb
Young Boys - Bayern Leverkusen
Molde - Hoffenheim
Granada - Napoli
Maccabi Tel Aviv - Šahtar
Lille - Ajax
Olympiacos - PSV

Source: UEFA

To read more about coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

December 14, 2020 – Zagreb's Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh is the only one in this part of Europe to use gene therapy to treat recently incurable hereditary eye diseases that cause vision loss, ranking Croatia among only six countries in the world that use this therapy in ophthalmology.

As Hina reports, Zagreb's Sveti Duh Clinical Hospital, which became a collaborating center of the World Health Organization last year, is the first regional Center of Excellence for implementing gene therapy for hereditary retinal dystrophies. Patients from about 15 countries, of which more than a third are countries within the European Union, will gravitate to it.

Sixth in the world to apply this method

The final diagnosis, in which this treatment method gives incredible results until recently, is done based on genetic testing, and the first patients received therapy this summer.

Thanks to this well-deserved status of a certified Center of Excellence, Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh positioned the Republic of Croatia as the first country in Eastern and Southeastern Europe to apply this innovative method of treating a hereditary disease that causes blindness. Croatia is also the sixth country in the world (after the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Israel) to do so.

The gene therapy treatment procedure is performed exclusively in certified centers of excellence that must meet all clinical, scientific, technological, and personnel requirements determined by strict and scientifically based regulations of the European Union and the EMA.

"Thanks to this certificate and the decision of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute to cover all treatment costs, patients in Croatia are enabled to treat hereditary retinal dystrophies, for which there was no medical solution until recently. These are pigmented retinopathy and Leber's congenital amaurosis, a very rare eye disease caused by a mutation in the RPE65 gene, which results in certain blindness already in the first years of life, and at the latest in the fourth decade. With such patients, timely application of available gene therapy stops the progression of the disease and can lead to a significant improvement in eyesight," explained prof. Dr. sc. Mladen Bušić, the Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh director.

Lifelong effect

Dr. Bušić points out that their patients subjectively notice easier coping in low light conditions. It also makes them feel that the space in which they move is brighter and better lit.

"From a clinical point of view, their subjective impression was confirmed through our tests, by improving visual acuity in low light conditions, improving contrast vision, and expanding the visual field. All of the above allows them to navigate and move in space, and we believe this effect is lifelong," dr. Bušić pointed out.

This achievement is an additional recognition to the Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh, which confirms the highest professional standards of the Clinical Center of Excellence, this time for the application of an extremely demanding and sophisticated therapeutic procedure.

Costs fully covered

A mutation in one of over 260 different genes causes hereditary retinal dystrophies, so it is crucial to diagnose it in time through genetic testing.

It is estimated that up to 1,000 people in Croatia suffer from hereditary retinal dystrophies. Thus, genetic testing of patients is necessary to identify those in whom an innovative therapeutic solution can be applied.

The Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) fully covers these testing costs and the costs of treatment for all those patients in whom a mutation in the RPE65 gene causes hereditary retinal dystrophy.

Croatia is the first country in the world to make this possible for its insured citizens.

To read more news about Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

December 14, 2020 - Since the students and employees of the Elementary School Popovac didn't travel to Norway in April this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, they have decided to give virtual mobility a chance.

Instead of searching for a possible excuse, the students took the tasks seriously and used the possibilities of technology for learning and socializing during the fourth, and also the last, mobility of the Erasmus+ project “Kids Against Plastic Pollution”.

Two schools from Bergen and Odda took care of a diverse programme from the 7th to the 11th of December 2020. Together with the Norwegian hosts, students from the Romanian Tulcea and Manavgat in the south of Turkey also played a big part, as well as the young people of Baranja mentioned earlier.

The first day of the collective online meeting started live with the opening ceremony and once again reminded them how much progress the schools have made since the beginning of the project implementation. Six students from each country presented what they did in their schools from September of 2018 until now and what plans they have for the future regarding the continuation of the battle against plastic pollution. 

As a cultural segment with which they decided to represent Croatia and Baranja, the students chose the folk dance “Little Apples”. The Romanian folk motif embroidery on canvas, the importance of coffee in Turkey, and the representation of the Norwegian cultural flavour through photographs of cities followed by the musical background of the school band were presented in the afternoon live broadcast.

One of the activities of the day was a discussion on plastic pollution at the level of each school separately. The students agreed that it is essential to continue educating their friends, family, and the locals even after the project has been carried out.

Considering that due to epidemiological measures larger gatherings are not allowed in Croatia, instead of all students of the school, twelve 1st grade students headed to an environmental clean-up action with their teacher Ivana Vrbek Mesić. Besides Popovac, eco-friendly primary school students from Kneževo, together with their teacher Lidija Štimac, also found different kinds of garbage, from paper to bulky waste. In their actions, they clearly said: “Don’t leave anything but your footprints in nature!” Clean-up actions took place in all four countries.

On the third day of the videoconference, the emphasis was on the creative writing of short messages using the format "Skrifta på Veggen" (Writing on the Wall). The students came up with messages about sustainable development, plastic, and pollution. 

“We enjoyed the process of writing strong eco-messages with as few words as possible. It was interesting to hear how our peers from other countries think. We all want for our voice to be heard more when it comes to plastic pollution,” reported Ivano Rohtek, a 7th-grade student.

Thursday was a day when students could enjoy the performance of gifted young musicians from Rothaugen and Odda. The live broadcast was followed by a virtual meeting of six students from each school who were supposed to report on the clean-up action in their local community. In line with the given form, in which they wrote down the number of certain kinds of waste, they informed the partner students of their findings. 

On the last day of virtual mobility, prepared meals were shown from other countries, after which the voting took place for the best master chefs of the following specialties: Norwegian Salmon Pasta, Romanian mamaliga balls, Turkish karniyarik/stuffed eggplant and Baranja stuffed peppers. Afterward, the students listened to five podcast shows on plastic pollution and talked via videoconference about the guests, their statements and mentioned issues, and the things they learned. Around 500 students with a competitive spirit, through games and entertainment, checked their knowledge by solving the quiz “Say NO to Plastic” and, with the award of certificates, the five-day virtual mobility was officially closed. Of course, all schools were grateful to the Norwegian hosts, who managed to prepare an excellent programme in this unusual period and to crown two and a half years of learning, good cooperation, and friendship exceptionally well. The slogan of the newest Erasmus+ campaign is “We’re Stronger Together”, which the students in the project “Kids Against Plastic Pollution” showed numerous times.

And while some wonder why engage in the implementation of virtual mobility in these very strange times full of uncertainty and a dose of fear, computer science teacher Goran Podunavac and the school librarian Marijana Kuna say that they haven’t regretted a single moment of it.

“The spotlight was on the young people, who proudly presented what they learned about plastic pollution. Together they accomplished changes in their environments. I am proud of the results and I am certain that there will be more opportunities for cooperation, which are accompanied by the greatly anticipated travels. We would all like to be in Norway these days, but virtual mobility is also an invaluable experience for our small school,” says librarian Kuna.

“I was pleasantly surprised with students’ activity, despite the work being done mostly during remote learning. They became more flexible and came to grips with various digital tools in order to, for example, record their podcast shows and culinary challenges. They established communication with their peers from partner schools without any problems and prepared digital quizzes and other materials together. We said “yes” to the virtual mobility and engaged almost all students, and not just six, which would be the case with physical mobility,” teacher Podunavac notes. 

You might have heard that doing project activities online instead of going to physical mobility is "lost" mobility, but that blanket statement doesn't sit right for many reasons, such as achieving intercultural competences, linguistic skills, collaborative learning, media and digital skills, open-mindedness, teamwork, critical thinking, and networking. Those are more than good reasons why these students and teachers said yes to virtual mobility and never even thought of throwing away a chance to be part of it. 

Until the next collaboration and mobility (physical, blended, or virtual), let’s continue to be responsible, take care of each other and stay healthy because this dark winter will not last forever. Spring will come again. It always does. 

Follow Kids Against Plastic Pollution on Facebook here, and on Instagram here.

Text written by Goran Podunavac and Marijana Kuna from Elementary School Popovac

December 14, 2020 - State Secretary Tonči Glavina participated in the "Business panel on Tourism" as part of the online conference "Finance for Sustainable Growth" where, among other things, he stressed that the goal is to reduce seasonality in Croatian tourism by increasing the quality of tourist products and services.

As the Ministry of Tourism and Sport writes, the panel discussed financial instruments to recover tourism, Croatia's entry into the euro area, and expectations for the upcoming tourist year.

State Secretary Tonči Glavina pointed out that Croatia will first have access to funds from the Recovery and Resilience Fund from the new multi-year financial perspective.

"Measures for the placement of these funds will be defined by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan coordinated by the Government of the Republic of Croatia. The Plan refers to the challenges facing the Republic of Croatia, i.e., strengthening economic and social resilience, mitigating social and economic effects of the crisis, and a contribution to the green and digital transition," Glavina stressed.

The State Secretary also said at the panel that in the tourism sector, the goal of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan's measures and reforms is to strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of Croatian tourism. The goal is to reduce seasonality in tourism by increasing the quality of tourist products and services and developing particular forms of tourism, i.e., the development of sustainable, innovative, and resilient tourism.

Glavina added that it is necessary to increase Croatian tourism's sustainability and resilience by implementing reforms and activate investments that will have a positive impact on the development of new tourism products, the attraction of new market segments, and more even regional distribution of tourist traffic.

"By implementing the reforms and initiatives identified in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the tourism sector will contribute to GDP growth during 2021 and beyond, which is extremely important for Croatia," Glavina concluded.

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ZAGREB, Dec 14, 2020 - Croatia has registered 1,472 new coronavirus cases and 65 infection-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Monday morning.

A total of 2,857 infected people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 and 284 of them are on ventilators. Currently, there are 22,769 active cases in the country and 54,042 people are in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 177,358 people have been infected with the novel virus, 2,705 of them have died and 151,884 have recovered, including 3,673 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 888,080 people have been tested to date, including 5,798 in the last 24 hours.

December 14, 2020 - The National Civil Protection Headquarters held a new press conference at 11 am on Monday. Interior Minister and Head of the Headquarters, Davor Bozinovic, announced a framework for new measures in Croatia this week. 

Index.hr reports that on Saturday, the highest number of deaths was recorded so far - 78, and the same number of deaths was recorded on Sunday.

Today, all high schools have started online classes, and in some counties, students from 5th to 8th grade are also online.

On Saturday, new stricter measures for shops and shopping centers came into force, which further limits the number of people in them, depending on the store's size.

Current epidemiological measures are in force until December 21, except for new measures for shops and shopping centers until January 10. There will be no easing of measures on December 21, and if the situation does not improve significantly by then, it is possible to introduce new, even stricter measures on December 21.

In the last 24 hours, Croatia recorded 1,472 new cases and the current number of active cases 22,769. The total number of positive cases is 177,358. 5,798 people were tested. The average age of those tested was 43.76 years. 258 people were admitted for treatment in 24 hours. There are 284 people on ventilators, 29 new in 24 hours. 65 people died. The average age is 77.7 years. 

"We had a 5.7 percent increase this week," Capak said. "Our incidence is high; it is 1196. Currently, the highest incidence is in Međimurje and the lowest in Dubrovnik-Neretva."

Capak confirmed that we are the worst in the EU in terms of incidence.

"We are currently ranked 27th out of 27 countries in terms of incidence, 1 incidence higher than in Luxembourg. Our mortality rate is 628.5 per million inhabitants."

KBC Osijek has 197 covid patients, Varaždin 268 patients, Zarazna 116 patients, Dubrava 472 patients, Čakovec 163.

"The numbers are incomparable to the spring," Beros said. 

Will the measures be tightened on December 21 and will passes be introduced?

"Intensive talks have been held since the last press conference, and everything is being considered. This week we will have more specific information to start lowering the numbers. We know that people are interested in the predictability of the measures, so we are in constant talks. We are careful with announcements, and this week we will clarify some things so that a few days before the decision expires on the 21st, we can announce what the framework will be. Today, we can still repeat that we ask all fellow citizens to keep from gatherings and traveling for the holidays. We will provide a framework aware that no decision can replace the decision of individuals not to visit each other, omit celebrations, and refrain from gathering people outside of your households," he said.

"40 percent of new infections today are from contacts, which shows that the contact tracking system has not broken down," Capak said.

The headquarters was asked about the impression that decisions are not made on time.

"We have been completely focused for 10 months thinking about how to reduce numbers; we are doing the best we know how. The measures are similar in the world but differ in various socio-economic factors.  We look, we compare indicators in our country and the immediate environment. This is not an epidemic that lasts 7 to 14 days. I am sure that everyone, including the Headquarters and the government, will analyze everything," Bozinovic said.

"It's not a problem for me to pay the price for all this. I'm interested in what scientific facts you base us on not making decisions on time. It's possible, I don't deny it, but it's also possible that it's not. I'm doing the best I can at this point; at some point, citizens will judge. It is not a problem for me to bear the consequences," Beros said.

"You asked me on what scientific data we are based; is it not enough for you to know that we are the worst in Europe in terms of incidence," the journalist said.

"I hope I'm in a good place, that this is a press conference without a courtroom," Markotic said. "We are doing the best we know," Markotic said, adding that there will be an analysis after all. "It is easiest to adopt a measure; it should be adapted to the environment in which you live. When the analyzes are done, we will see who did well and who did not. We will draw the line at the end of the epidemic," Markotic said.

Capak says the entire epidemic in Croatia should be analyzed from the beginning. He said it would be assessed whether a measure was adopted on time or not.

"I hope that, given that we have a light at the end of the tunnel - vaccination, we will have time to evaluate everything, and that others will evaluate us," said Capak.

Bozinovic was again asked about the introduction of passes to travel between counties.

"Intensive talks are being held on the measures; I won't comment on any of them. We will provide more precise information this week," he said.

To read more about coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.