Alemka Markotic: "We'll Return Anti-Epidemic Measures Where Necessary"

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of June, 2020, Alemka Markotic, the director of the ''Dr. Fran Mihaljevic'' Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb said that the situation with the spread of the new coronavirus is continuously being monitored.

''We have two major hotspots, in Đakovo, where epidemiologists are coping very well with and so far we've not heard of any major problems, and in Zagreb. Zagreb is a big city and we can always expect that big cities have the largest number of patients. One focus is in the St. Ivan hospital, so far only one person has more severe symptoms. None of the patients is on a respirator and none of the lives of these patients are threatened, although almost 50 percent of the patients have come from the St. Ivan hospital and they're older than 60, so in a way, they're risk groups. So far, only two people are experiencing a more severe clinical picture, the others have a mild to moderate form of the disease, despite the fact that nine of them have pneumonia,'' she said.

Alemka Markotic concluded that the Croatian health system had shown itself to be stable and properly prepared.

In the first part of the epidemic of the new coronavirus, there were also more infected health workers, and as such she answered a question about the number of infected people working in health care.

''The crisis system is functioning, ready and organised. We have additional experience and our citizens can feel safe. The communication of experts in the country should be clear, correct and fair,'' she noted.

''Everyone's work is open for review. We've thought, corrected, and we're doing the same again now. The situation isn't critical, although we do need to be careful. It's important that the experts provide their opinions. The headquarters is not alone, there are a lot of people who are doing their jobs diligently,'' she added.

As for the critics, Alemka Markotic said that it would be good to state specifically what is good and what is not in their opinions.

''We gradually introduced some measures, then we gradually relaxed them, now we're going to need to return them where these critical situations have occurred,'' she said.

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