ZAGREB, Aug 9, 2020 - In the past 24 hours there have been 61 new coronavirus cases in Croatia, bringing the total number of active cases to 586, the national coronavirus crisis response team said on Sunday.

Among the active cases are 121 hospitalised patients, including eight patients on ventilators. There have been no new deaths.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia reported its first case of the coronavirus infection, there have 5,604 cases of the infection, with 157 fatalities and 4,861 recoveries.

Currently, 2,008 people are in self-isolation. To date, a total of 128,132 people have been tested, including 727 in the past 24 hours, the response team said in a press release.

As miss7/Daniela Horvat writes on the 9th of August, 2020, the editor-in-chief of the miss7 brand, Tonkica Zlacki, found herself in a rather scandalous situation in Opatija, where she intended to spend a relaxing weekend with her young daughter. She booked accommodation for the pair at the prestigious Imperial Hotel, which turned out to be closed.

The tourist season is in full swing, but the old lady of Croatian tourism, Opatija, can't boast of the results it enjoyed in previous years. According to local media, tourist workers in Opatija are complaining that this year's season is "catastrophic" and "twice as bad as last year's". Since there is a fierce fight for every guest on the entire Croatian Adriatic, the event that shocked the editor-in-chief of the miss7 brand Tonkica Zlacki is especially surprising.

Namely, in the company of her eight-year-old daughter, she went to Opatija, where she booked accommodation at the prestigious Remisens Premium Heritage Hotel Imperial. It is one of the oldest hotels in Opatija, located along the shoreline not far from the city's sights, and which boasts the fact that the second hotel built on the Croatian coast. The aforementioned historical hotel is widely known to the people of Opatija and their guests, but Tonkica Zlacki was surprised when she was greeted at the door by an announcement - that the hotel was closed!

"It's a scam, people are being misled. It's not sloppiness, it's a targeted scam to get you there. It's scandalous," the editor-in-chief of the miss7 brand stated when discussing the matter. "I chose that hotel, I didn't want another one. People want to get what they've paid for. I wanted to be near the beach I've been coming to with my family for years. But that's not even the crucial part, the crucial thing is that this is what I chose, it was available to be booked, and then I get here to be greeted by a piece of A4 paper stuck on the door saying that it's closed,'' Tonkica stated.

When Tonkica contacted the hotel staff, she revealed that her reservation had been redirected to the Remisens Premium Hotel Ambasador, which is also one of the hotels within the Liburnia Riviera Hotels company.

"They tell you that they transferred you to another hotel on their own initiative, it doesn't matter what the categorisation is, although that alternative hotel has five stars. I wasn't interested in it because it's not in the location I wanted, nor is it a hotel that I chose. If I wanted to stay at that hotel, I'd have booked it,'' she said, revealing that at this point, a disillusioned guest has only two things left at their disposal - to accept the offered accommodation or simply look for another.

"It's completely insane. They're selling something that doesn't exist. That's the main point. As a consumer, you have no control over this process, but they put you in accommodation that suits them and they don't regulate the price in any way," Tonkica concluded.

Miss7 decided to check out the whole story and headed to Booking.com where they successfully booked accommodation at the Imperial Hotel for themselves. Furthermore, they decided to check the availability of accommodation in this hotel and on the pages of other online advertisers (RevNGo, Uniline, Agoda) and they succeeded in doing so. Moreover, it was shown that accommodation can also be booked on the official website of Liburnia Riviera Hotels, the group that owns the hotel, which clearly shows that this is not merely an accidental mistake.

In addition, the official website of the group didn't publish any information on how the aforementioned hotel was closed. Therefore, as a potential guest, miss7 contacted the reservation centre of Liburnia Riviera Hotels which confirmed to us that the Hotel Imperial was closed. When asked how it's possible to book accommodation in a hotel that is not open at all, the clerk answered with the following: "It's a decision that has been taken at a higher level. All guests will be moved to Hotel Ambasador. It's a five star hotel."

They couldn't reveal the reasons for the closure of the Imperial Hotel. This scandalous business practice of the Liburnia Riviera hotel group, which holds as many as ten hotels in Opatija, is very difficult to understand. According the information, such methods are not only a consequence of the crisis after the coronavirus epidemic, but such situations have happened before, but out of season. It's quite shocking that guests who have chosen this facility with their own will and money, will be transferred on the spot by the "take it or leave it" method to another hotel that suits the hotel group the most at that moment. Truly scandalous.

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ZAGREB, Aug 9, 2020 - Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) president Milorad Pupovac said in Sunday's edition of the Vecernji List daily that he would attend a commemoration for Croatian war victims in Skabrnja to share the pain of the locals.

"For a long time, I've felt the need to share with my cousins and dear people the pain over the killing in Skabrnja. That's where I come from," he was quoted as saying.

In the interview, Pupovac spoke of his view of the August 5 anniversary of the 1995 military Operation Storm and the messages President Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic sent from there, which were conciliatory and a big step towards the future.

He also spoke of the criticisms from Belgrade and his sharp reply to Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and other politicians in Serbia who called the SDSS "traitors" because Deputy PM Boris Milosevic attended the anniversary.

Pupovac also sharply criticised Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, saying he was insulting in a comment on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's statements in the wake of the anniversary by claiming that Serbs in Croatia "don't need a mentor from the side."

August the 9th, 2020 - The US Embassy in Croatia has stated that the advise now being given to American tourists is to ''reconsider travel to Croatia'' amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As the US Embassy in Croatia has stated, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice to American citizens hoping to travel to the Republic of Croatia.

There have been numerous items added to the ''checklist'' for travel for US citizens for Croatia, which can be read by clicking the above link and by following the links provided within the US Embassy's webpage. A country information page is also available.

For more on travel to, from and within Croatia during the coronavirus era, follow our dedicated travel page.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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August 9, 2020 - Croatian basketball player Dario Saric was solid in the Phoenix Suns' victory against Miami Heat last night, as was Ivica Zubac, whose LA Clippers outplayed the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Phoenix Suns (31-39) beat Miami 119-112, with Saric scoring ten points in 22 minutes on the court (shots in play 2/5, three-pointers 2/3) and recorded eight rebounds and one assist and one steal. With 35 points, Devin Booker was the top scorer for the winning team, which is undefeated since arriving in Orlando and is currently tenth in the Western Conference.

He ain't missing pic.twitter.com/arbq6OiVMB

— 5-0 (@Suns) August 9, 2020

Deandre Ayton added 18 points with 12 rebounds and Jevon Carter added 20 points.

Miami (43-27), who played without its three top scorers, was led by Tyler Herro with 25 points, ten assists and eight rebounds.

Ivica Zubac contributed to the Los Angeles Clippers' 122-117 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers with nine points (shots in play 2/5), 12 rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes spent on the court.

Big man with the big jam.@FoxSportsWest | @ivicazubac pic.twitter.com/Zzv4uyBSGh

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) August 8, 2020

Paul George was the best individual for the Clippers with 21 points, while Portland was led by CJ McCollum with 29 points and eight assists. Damian Lillard and Gary Trent Jr. each scored 22, and Carmelo Anthony 21.

The Dallas Mavericks (42-30) outscored the Milwaukee Bucks 136-132 after extra time, and Luka Doncic reached his 17th triple-double this season with 36 points, 19 assists and 14 rebounds.

Dorian Finney-Smith added 27 points and 11 rebounds for Dallas to make up for the seven-point deficit in overtime, and Kristaps Porzingis added 26 points and 11 rebounds.

For Milwaukee (55-15), Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo were best, who both finished the game with 34 points.

The Indiana Pacers (43-27) were better than the Los Angeles Lakers (51-18), and were led to a 116-111 victory by T.J. Warren, who scored 39 points. Malcolm Brogdon added 24 points and Victor Oladipo added 22.

LeBron James, who missed the game against the Houston Rockets on Thursday, returned to the court and finished the game with 31 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

And in the last game played last night, the Denver Nuggets celebrated 134-132 against the Utah Jazz after two overtimes. Nikola Jokic scored 30 points with 11 rebounds for Denver, while Donovan Mitchell was the best for Utah with 35 points.

Source: T.portal

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

August 9, 2020 - Last year, there were 272 cruisers in Croatia - and thanks to COVID-19, only 15 have been recorded in the country in 2020. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that this time of year, our coastal cities typically feature swarms of tourists, and monster cruisers are parked in and around our ports, adding to the crowds and pushing the city's capacity to the brim.

However, it only took one coronavirus pandemic to change it all; and while there are tourists today, there are no cruisers in sight. 

There have been no cruise ship tourists in Croatia for months, as cruisers came to a halt in March. The Central Bureau of Statistics on Friday published data on foreign cruise ships in the first half of the year, stating that there have been no cruisers on the Croatian coast for months because the COVID-19 pandemic introduced measures to ban the entry of international cruises, which directly affected the number of foreign cruise ships in Croatian seaports in March and their absence in April, May and June 2020.

From January to June, six foreign cruisers sailed into Croatian seaports, making 15 trips  - five in January, seven in February and three in March. Last year, in the first half of the year, there were 54 cruisers in Croatian waters, which made 272 trips. There were 3737 passengers on cruisers in Croatian ports this year, and most of them, 2809, was in January. In total, these cruisers were in Croatia for 47 days. In the first half of last year, there were a total of 409,238 passengers on cruise ships, making 554 trip days, and most passengers were counted in June, or 162,000 of them.

The CBS states that due to the pandemic, from January to June this year, the number of foreign cruise ships in Croatian seaports decreased by 88.9 percent compared to the same period last year. In the first six months of this year, foreign cruise ships decreased by 94.5 percent, and the number of days spent on the Croatian Adriatic decreased by 91.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019. The number of passengers on these ships compared to in 2019 was lower by 99.1 percent.

Of the 15 cruises of foreign ships this year, 12 flew the flag of Malta, while the largest number of passengers, 2,690, arrived on ships flying the flag of Italy. The majority of these cruises this year, 73 percent of them, were realized in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, while the rest were in Istria County.

Some believe that Venice and Dubrovnik will not see a quick return of cruisers, as cruise companies suffer huge losses.

In the first quarter of this year alone, Carnival, the largest cruise company, had more than $4 billion in losses due to an 85 percent drop in revenue over the same period last year. Carnival has already borrowed more than six billion dollars and announced that it would sell four cruisers to cover its minuses and costs, which exceed $600 million a month.

The second quarter will not be easier for Carnival and other companies in the business. Some companies have announced they could re-arrange travel in mid-September, others cite November, though everything is still uncertain, as the coronavirus continues to spread. 

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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August 9, 2020 - The director of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljevic" Alemka Markotic was a guest on RTL Today, where she commented on the coronavirus in Croatia and the number of patients in recent days.

"The numbers are a bit better or worse, but the trend is downward; you'll see that we have a downward trend from the beginning of the second wave. Every couple of days, we have some new peaks related to different hotspots," she said, as reported by Index.hr.

She also commented on how tourists should behave.

"It's almost a month and a half into the season, and it's clear that we are a safe country. There were no major jumps among tourists, obviously, those who come are very responsible, and tourism workers are convinced that a lot depends on the season," she said, and added that the problem is in younger people who become infected by going out to enclosed spaces at night. Measures are planned to be taken in this regard.

"These hotspots are not that big; they are gatherings like weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties and some nightclubs. We will try to introduce new measures and security checks in places where there are hotspots to prevent this from happening again," she added.

She also commented on the rise of young infections.

"These were larger private gatherings, such as weddings and bachelor and bachelorette parties, and individual nightclubs. We must take into account that there are hundreds of those who make sure that all measures are implemented properly. So we cannot punish everyone, but we will try in places where outbreaks appear, introduce additional security checks and see how to improve the situation so that new outbreaks no longer occur in those places," she said.

The age of the infected has also dropped, so there are more and more of them among the young.

"Young people are definitely not among the most at-risk groups. But a large number of them have now relaxed with the measures. There are a lot of movements, activities and the like. Of course, the higher the number, the greater the chances of serious infections. Young people must understand that they can contribute a lot and help the health system and each other. They have been the vanguard many times in difficult situations; I believe that young people will understand this, and you will soon see. A group of enthusiasts and professors from Osijek and Slavonia is preparing a very interesting school program that will relate to biosafety, biosecurity and COVID. I believe that young people will wholeheartedly accept it and help all of us in that," she said.

And to end - did the German graduates become infected on Pag?

"They had symptoms around the third day in Croatia, so it is unlikely that they became infected in our country. They became infected either during the bus trip or before," she added.

She also commented on vaccines and said that America and Russia are in the running.

For more news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

Experts have been constantly warning people that one of the most important ways in which we can protect ourselves from contracting the new coronavirus is to maintain a safe distance from other people. One Zagreb company has an idea...

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of August, 2020, this is where the small Distancer 2M device from the Zagreb company “2M Divison” comes into the question, which is registered for both production and services, and is primarily oriented towards sales and representation. This Zagreb company was supposed to begin operations in March, but due to the coronavirus crisis itself, everything was prolonged, according its director Mario Anic, who has many years of experience and success in the sales sector across various industries. His company currently has no other employees, but given that the Distancer 2M product will be on the market soon, employment is also planned.

''The Distancer D2M is a small electronic device that warns the wearer and their surroundings with light and sound if the social distance measure of two metres is disrespected. It is worn as a badge on the lapel or as a pendant around the neck. The main thing with the D2M is to keep your distance. It clearly says 2M and anyone who sees it on someone or takes it in their hands knows exactly what it refers to. The signals themselves are often not needed. In order to bring something so simple and necessary to the market, we had to gather a team together. That's why 2M Division was founded. We've gathered a team that is dedicated to bringing D2M into the hands and onto the chests of as many people as possible and we expect great progress over the next few months,'' he said in conversation with Slobodna Dalmacija.

''It all started with the SYNERGY project, in which vouchers were awarded through a public tender in six Central European countries (Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Italy and Croatia) to finance innovative ideas that solve social problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic. At the invitation of the SYNERGY project, the Matija Petar Katancic Elementary School from Valpovo also responded, asking for a solution to the problem of returning students to schools and ensuring social distance. Miroslav Spiranovićc an innovator from Valpovo, was the only one in all of Croatia to offer a solution.

We used the existing technology of ultrasonic and optical sensors and created a small, practical device which is accessible to everyone, and is especially intended for children and the elderly for whom the COVID-19 disease poses a real threat. The innovation itself was made with the help of the Science and Technology Park of the University of Rijeka "StepRi", the company "Tera Tehnopolis" d.o.o. and the Association of Technical Culture Valpovo-Belisce, and along with Spiranovic, Tomislav Kudeljnjak and Dragan Francuz also participated. After a few months, we came to two final versions that we plan to market in the fourth quarter of 2020. The D2M Lite is for personal use, and the D2M Pro is for a professional indoor environment,'' stated this Zagreb company's director, Mario Anic.

The price will be affordable for customers, and the Distancer 2M has a battery that lasts for about five days and is charged on a standard USB port.

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