August 20, 2020 - The Split Mayor, Andro Krstulovic Opara, said that the recently increased number of newly infected in Split-Dalmatia County was "a consequence of a larger number of tourists and a larger number of young people enjoying nightlife." He sharply called out the irresponsible caterers.
T.portal reports that Krstulovic said that the city's Civil Protection Headquarters reacted as soon as they noticed the sudden growth of the newly infected, convening an emergency meeting on Monday, N1 reports.
"These are not worrying numbers, but we had to intervene," said the mayor, noting that the meeting was attended by the director of the Split-Dalmatia County Teaching Institute for Public Health, Zeljka Karin, and the president of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) for Split, Jozo Tomas.
The meeting was convened, the mayor explained, "to harmonize the work with the work of the inspection services to prevent those little anomalies and those rare greedy recidivists." The term “greedy recidivists” referred to the group of caterers who did not implement epidemiological measures.
Krstulovic Opara believes that the number of infected will "drop soon".
The N1 reporter was interested in whether the reaction came late, because, for example, out of Wednesday's 66 new cases in the county, as many as 18 are from Imotski, which seems to be a possible focus, as he stated.
"Time will tell if the reaction is timely," the mayor replied, adding:
"We're at 70 percent overnight stays compared to last year. The economy has finally started... It would be dreadful to jeopardize results like this now because of a few."
He believes that the national headquarters made the right decisions and quality instructions in a timely manner, but that, apart from the irresponsible caterers, the problem is overburdening inspectors. On limiting the work of bars, cafes and catering clubs, the Split Mayor said:
"If they (the caterers) would stick to the measures, as far as we are concerned, they could work all night. It can already be seen that there is a smaller number of those who violate the measures."
Opara concluded by saying in the autumn, he "would not say that it will be difficult, but that it would be demanding."
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