ZAGREB, 1 May, 2021 - A total of 2,046 new coronavirus cases have been registered in Croatia in the last 24 hours and 49 people have died from COVID-19, the national coronavirus response team reported on Saturday.

The number of active cases now stands at 14,276. Currently, 2,210 infected people are receiving hospital treatment, including 246 who are on ventilators, and 34,826 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 334,229 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 7,130 have died and 312,823 have recovered, including 2,228 in the last 24 hours.

So far, 901,120 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and 702,470 people have been vaccinated, including 501,257 who have received the first shot and 198,650 who have received both shots. For 2,563 people there are no data on how many doses they received.

A fifth of adults have received at least one dose

According to data from the eCijepih platform, a fifth of the adult population in Croatia, or 20.9%, have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19, which is in accordance with the vaccination plan conducted by the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ).

Most of the vaccinated people are 70 years and older, of whom 54% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Given a large number of vaccine doses due to arrive in May and June, the HZJZ expects that at least 1,848,462 people, or 55% of the adult population, will be inoculated by July.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May 1, 2021 - The Sinković brothers and Jurković sisters have won gold in the coxless pairs at the Zagreb Rowing World Cup!

Brothers Valent and Martin Sinković won the gold medal today in the coxless pairs discipline at the Rowing World Cup held at Zagreb's Jarun Lake, and sisters Ivana and Josipa Jurković won the gold in the women's competition in the same discipline! 

Ivana and Josipa Jurković were the first to perform in the final in which they were the fastest, winning with a time of 07:11.12. The second place was taken by the Czech team Anna Santruckova and Paulina Famlikova (7:16.43), and the third by the French duo Maya Cornut and Emma Cornelis.

The Sinković brothers celebrated convincingly in coxless pairs with a time of 6:2.55. In second were Frenchmen Thibaud and Gauillaume Turlan with 6:28.39, and in third were Spaniards Jaime Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez with 6:29.57.

"The race was phenomenal, firstly it was at home, everything is known, and secondly when we went out on the water people were cheering and when the race started it was wonderful to paddle. The last 500 m everyone was by the fence and cheering us on, it is a truly unique feeling," said Martin Sinković.

His brother Valent agreed. "The race was wonderful. We heard cheering the whole race, all credit to everyone and I invite you in two years to repeat this same thing," Valent said.

Damir Martin eventually took third place in the singles final. The silver medalist five years ago in Rio de Janeiro held third place for almost the entire course of the race behind the great German Oliver Zeidler, who dominated the victory, and the Norwegian Kjetil Borch, who finished second.

Already in the middle of the track, Zeidler had a 3.55-second advantage over Borch, or 5.38 seconds ahead of Martin. 500 meters before the finish the situation was almost identical - Zeidler led with 3.03 seconds ahead of Borch, or 5.04 seconds ahead of Martin to enter the finish line with 4.51 seconds ahead of the Norwegian, or 5.59 ahead of Croatia's representative.

Croatia's coxless fours Ivan Piton, Marko Ukropina, Anton and Patrik Lončarić won the bronze!

The first place was taken by the French crew with a time of 5:59.88, in second was the Polish side with 6:01.40, and the third place was taken by Piton, Ukopina, and the Lončarić brothers with a time of 6:02.25.

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May 1, 2021 - The Sinković brothers run for those who can't by joining the Wings for Life World Run on May 9!

For a full seven years, the global Wings for Life World Run has connected people with big hearts in all parts of the world, who together embark on a competitive racing adventure at the same time to raise funds needed for clinical research that will make spinal cord injuries curable.

Among the many top athletes who do not miss this important sports and humanitarian event are the Sinković brothers, reports Gol.hr.

Martin and Valent Sinković could not have started the Olympic rowing season better, winning gold at the European Championships in Varese.

Only a week after the strong World Cup regatta at home in Zagreb, they are ready to replace their oars with racing equipment and, on Sunday, May 9, run for those who can't.

"Last year, we ran the Wings for Life World Run with the app, and it was a special experience. The audio in the app cheered us on all the time, and we were happy to be able to participate," Martin Sinković said.

The Sinković brothers tirelessly continue their preparations for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, with as many as 12 training sessions a week.

That morning, May 9, they will do another hard rowing training on Peruća Lake, and only a few hours later, they will join many Croatian participants at 1 pm.

From the very beginning, Croatian competitors have been among the most numerous participants in this global event, which has already run more than 7 million kilometers.

The Sinković brothers can boast of really respectable results at the Wings for Life World Run, although their sport does not have much to do with professional running.

Thus, Valent ran 24 kilometers last year with the application. In 2019, Martin stood out with 19 kilometers before he was caught by an interceptor vehicle, which marks the end of the race by passing the competitor.

Although always in the mood to compete, Valent and Martin are aware that in this race, there are things that are much more important than breaking their own records, and the format of the race offers an opportunity for everyone to get involved and enjoy.

"It is a special feeling when you run for those who can't. That's why it doesn't matter how much you run, but it's important to participate and help," the Sinković brothers emphasize.

You, too can join the global Wings for Life World Run community on May 9, run for those who can’t, and enjoy this memorable sporting event.

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

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May 1, 2021 - Construction on the Jadran Split Zvoncac pool is nearing completion and was visited on Friday by the Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac.

On Friday, the Minister of Tourism and Sports Nikolina Brnjac, accompanied by Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara, Secretary-General of the Croatian Swimming Federation Ivana Jerković, and Olympian Marin Mogić, visited the Jadran swimming pool and engine room at Zvoncac. These are works worth over HRK 9.8 million, and the project was co-financed by the Government of the Republic with HRK 7.5 million, reports Slobodna Dalmacija. 

"Split is an inexhaustible source of sports talents, who have brought many international successes not only to Split but also to the whole of Croatia and contributed to the recognition of our homeland throughout the world. I thank the prefect of our homeland all over the world. I thank Prefect Boban and Mayor Krstulović Opara for their cooperation and for all the efforts made to keep Split a center of excellence in Croatian sports," said Minister Brnjac, adding that in 2019 and 2020, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports co-financed 56 infrastructure projects in the total amount of more than HRK 30 million, while this year it will co-finance another 43 new infrastructure projects of HRK 15 million.

In total, through other tenders and activities in 2016 in Split-Dalmatia County, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports in the field of sports has invested more than HRK 40 million, including co-financing major sporting events, which Split will host, such as the Olympic basketball qualifying tournament in the summer or the European Water Polo Championships, to be held next year.

Jadran swimmer Marin Mogić, who is preparing for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, could not hide his happiness. Mogić and his colleague Franko Grgić gave an additional impetus to do all this, thanks to their excellent results.

"I am happy that this project, after so many years of planning, has finally come true. When I went inside, I said that everything was a bit bizarre because it had been talked about for so many years, and honestly, one small part of me thought it would never happen. I am glad that Franko and I gave an additional incentive with our results to speed up the project and make it right," said Marin.

Srđan Kovačić, president of the Jadran Sports Association, was also very emotional.

"This is one of our dreams for a long time, and that dream turns into a reality. I can't come to my senses at this point. We will finally be able to train in our pool 365 days a year," said Kovačić.

"After completing the energy renovation of the swimming pool on Poljud, worth HRK 80 million, this is the second step worth HRK 10 million. We will have a winter pool that will relieve the renewed one in Poljud, and together they will raise the quality of training," said Krstulović Opara.

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May 1, 2021 - A map of the Split-Dalmatia County development projects for better project visibility. 

Jutarnji List reports that numerous development projects have been started and largely completed in the Split-Dalmatia area in recent years. Through its administrative departments and institutions, the county has actively and constantly invested in the balanced development of the county through several most essential categories. Split-Dalmatia County has the most local governments, with as many as 16 cities and 39 municipalities, including county projects and investment programs. For better project visibility, and in cooperation with the Public Institution RERA S.D. as the regional coordinator of that county and all county services, a map of development projects of the Split-Dalmatia County was made. The map shows the geographical distribution of development projects through a total of eight categories. It is designed as a tool that will be updated with new projects in the future.

Eight categories refer to the most critical areas of investment, so it is evident that in recent years almost 600 million kuna has been invested in road infrastructure through numerous projects of the competent county administrative department, projects of the County Road Administration, but also the most critical projects of Croatian Roads. Port infrastructure and maritime property, in a county that is largely oriented towards the sea, is a significant development resource, so through this category, more than 36 million kuna has been invested in the maritime domain, in the areas of various local governments in the coast and on islands. In recent years the County Port Authority has started and partly already implemented development projects for the construction, rehabilitation and arrangement of port infrastructure in the value of more than 427 million kuna.

Economic zones and communal infrastructure were developed through 48 individual investments worth more than 34 million kuna.

In the county's area, six investment projects in water supply and drainage have been launched, which, with the partnership and support of the county services, are being implemented by Croatian Waters. These are projects worth more than four billion kuna. They relate to the Agglomeration SPLIT-KLIS-DUGOPOLJE-PODSTRANA-SOLIN, Agglomeration KAŠTELA-TROGIR-DISTRICT (SPLIT) -SEGET, Agglomeration TRILJ-ISLAND-DICMO JRACKA, Aglome STARI GRAD, and IMOTSKI Agglomeration.

Health care has been a current topic before, and especially in recent years, with constantly growing needs, to which the county responded with projects of almost 377 million kuna. Investments were made in 12 branches of Health Center facilities, equipment and premises for the Teaching Institute for Public Health, eight branches of the. Split-Dalmatia County Institute of Emergency Medicine, procuring 35 ambulances, but also strengthening human capacity through more than 80 specialist medical training. KBC Split, as the backbone of the health system, in cooperation with the County, is implementing projects worth more than 427 million kuna. The Split-Dalmatia Pharmacies made a significant step forward with the realized project of building and equipping the Galenic-Analytical Laboratory worth 70 million kuna.

As one of the categories, the map shows education, i.e., projects of construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and energy renovation of schools and dormitories, 17 facilities, a total of 105,694,040.02 kuna, and two projects of regional centers of excellence - Tourist School Split - 170 million kuna and Crafts - technical school Split - 82 million kuna. The projects carried out by the University of Split are also presented, and which were also realized with the support and partnership of the county.

Although the map defines the category "There is your home," the program that encourages demographic renewal through incentives for young families from rural areas to build and adapt houses, where a total of 120 individual contracts are visible distributed in 21 local government units, demographic renewal of rural areas is encouraged through several other measures and incentives.

One of the crucial categories on the map is EU projects. Those projects in which the holder or partner is a county or one of the county institutions are presented, and they relate to various economic and social sectors. Numerous projects listed in other categories are financed from EU funds, such as some significant road and port infrastructure projects, energy renovation projects of schools, construction and equipping of branches of the Health Center or projects of KBC Split, University of Split, and agglomerations. EU funds are the flywheel and wind in the back of a large number of our development projects, and over the past year, the county has gathered staff in its services who successfully implement the started and prepare new EU projects. In  ​​Split-Dalmatia County, more than 6 billion and 130 million kuna worth of projects financed from EU funds has been contracted so far.

For more, follow our business section.

May the 1st, 2021 - How can the Croatian recovery plan add to the country's GDP by the year 2026? With the ongoing coronavirus dealing blow after blow, help from the European Union's special mechanism could be the rescue package the Croatian economy needs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, in order to use the 47 billion kuna in grants from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism over the next five or six years, the Croatian Government prepared a National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPO) for final consultations with the European Commission with 152 investment projects and 77 reforms on the table.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic repeatedly emphasised recently that this is a proposal for the Croatian recovery plan, which means that through the process of intensive consultations over the coming weeks, certain modifications are possible and even likely to an extent. This large document, containing more than 1,100 pages, explains the planned reforms and investment projects for which the intention is to obtain 6.4 billion euros in so-called grants. The Prime Minister describes this as key to Croatian economic recovery, increasing resilience to future crises, and overall development in the coming years.

In addition to the positive effects of such investment incentives for domestic economic growth, the reforms required of EU member states under this particular EU instrument should result in the strengthening of institutions and competitiveness. In a year or two, Croatia can go with projects for which it would seek favourable loans as part of the second component of the EU Resilience Fund, and for which Croatia has an additional 3.6 billion euros or about 27 billion kuna at its disposal. All of that is currently sitting on the shelf and is very much in the background at the moment, however.

In addition to the proposal for the Croatian recovery plan, the government will forward the Convergence Programme to the European Commission in a package, which is usually sent to Brussels at this time of year as part of the European Semester. That document also has a strong NPOO stamp. Since the first 6.1 billion kuna is expected to be pre-financed under the Croatian recovery plan at the beginning of autumn, the government estimates that its first effects on economic growth will be seen in Croatia's growth rate in 2021, and much more in the coming years.

Namely, according to new macroeconomic projections, domestic GDP growth of 5.2 percent is expected this year, with 0.3 percentage points of growth attributed directly to the effect of the Croatian recovery plan. Over the next two years, this effect should be around 1.4 percentage points of growth, meaning that next year it is expected to grow by 6.6 percent instead of 5.2 percent.

The Ministry of Finance has calculated that by 2025, compared to 2020, the implementation of the Croatian recovery plan will cumulatively increase GDP by an additional 4.2 percent when compared to the scenario without the use of the Croatian recovery plan. Finally, in 2026, as the last year of the implementation of the plan, Croatian GDP should be 17 billion kuna higher than it would have been without the Croatian recovery plan in place.

For more, follow our dedicated politics section.

May the 1st, 2021 - The beautiful Sibenik waterfront has now got a brand new installation in honour of the very first camera which took film footage of this part of Europe 123 years ago. The new Sibenik camera, more precisely the installation will be called ''Alexandre Promio in Sibenik again''.

As Morski writes, the installation "Alexandre Promio in Šibenik again" was set up on the Sibenik waterfront - a replica of the first film camera, which, back at the very end of April 123 years ago, shot the oldest piece of film footage from this part of Europe.

The mind behind the Sibenik camera installation is Zoran Lucic Luca, and the presentation of the installation was attended by Mayor Zeljko Buric, his associates and the Director of the Tourist Board of the City of Sibenik, Dino Karadjole.

''123 years ago, people realised how beautiful this city is and how interesting its surroundings are. If there were no such people in Sibenik, such as Zoran Lucic Luca, they'd probably never know some of the stories from this city's rich history,'' stated Zeljko Buric as the new Sibenik camera was put in place.

In Croatian cinematography, records state that the oldest piece of film footage from the territory of Croatia and this part of Europe is a recording called "Sibenik Port" from 1904. That piece of film is the work of English cameraman Frank Mottershow. This was written in the history books, the Croatian Audio Visual Centre (HAVC) and the Croatian Cinematheque until 2005, when a professor from the Academy of Dramatic Arts (ADU) in Zagreb, prof. Enes Midzic quite by chance happened to find a strange title: "Salut dans les vergues de Alexandre Promio, Sibenik, 28th/29th April, 1898'' somewhere on the Internet. Professor Midzic then went to the French capital of Paris to try to discover more and found seven such short films.

The films "Pozdrav s jarbola/Greetings from the foremast", "Dolazak i sidrenje broda/The arrival and the anchoring of the ship", "Priprema za boj/Preparation for battle", "Regata (prolazak)/Regatta (passage)," and ''Regata (povratak)/Regatta (return)'' were all shot in the port of Sibenik because they clearly show the recognisable landscape of Martinska and the Sibenik Bay, with the exception being the film "Priprema za boj/Preparation for battle". Thar piece of footage was shot on one of the two vessels seen in the other films, so it can be assumed that the film was also shot in the port of Sibenik.

These incredible pieces of film are the oldest preserved film records in the Republic of Croatia and this part of Europe overall.

Zoran Lucic Luca therefore wants to mark this event in this way, and highlight a place that is important for Croatian history and culture, and especially for Sibenik. The opening of this Sibenik camera announces the theme of this year's project by Zoran Lucic Luca and the Tourist Board of the City of Sibenik - an event called "Light is life".

For all you need to know about Sibenik in 2021, check out Sibenik in a Page.

May the 1st, 2021 - The Croatian Civil Protection Directorate has introduced new anti-epidemic measures as the country's infection rate slowly drops and the situation seems slightly more favourable. Despite that, the powers that be still consider it too risky to start on the path back to total normality.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Civil Protection Directorate (often referred to as the headquarters) have considered the current situation with the novel virus and have introduced new epidemiological measures at the national level.

''Although the epidemiological situation is somewhat more favourable than it was before, it doesn't mean that we can now all relax, so, the Croatian Civil Protection Directorate has extended the implementation of all current decisions related to gatherings, the opening hours/functioning of shops, public transport and restrictions on crossing the Croatian border, until May the 15th,'' said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic.

There are, however, some alterations for people entering Croatia from the European Union (EU) or the Schengen zone, and they will allowed to enter on the basis of a negative rapid antigen test result, and they will no longer have to repeat the test if they intend to stay in Croatia for more than ten days. Whether such persons will need to do that at all depends on the countries they're returning to and their respective measures,'' Bozinovic explained.

People who have recovered from COVID-19, and those who have been vaccinated with a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine, will be exempted from the obligation to present a negative test result or go into self-isolation/quarantine, the minister added.

The ban on the sale of alcohol will be from 22:00 to 06:00, and not from 20:00 to 06:00 as it was before. The working hours of catering and hospitality facilities will be from 06:00 to 22:00, and not to 20:00 as it was before. There are no more restrictions for foreign language schools to report. Down in the Neretva Valley, local decisions for Metkovic, Ploce and Opuzen are being repealed, and only the measures introduced at the national level are to be applied,'' Bozinovic said.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including border, travel and quarantine rules, as well as vaccination points and testing centres throughout the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section.