November the 18th, 2021 - The director of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, has warned that free coronavirus testing isn't going to be a long lasting offer, and that there are enough doses of the vaccine for everyone who hasn't yet had it.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Krunoslav Capak confirmed recently for the second time that free coronavirus testing, more precisely testing done at the expense of employers will not last long. He also denied that the use of Croatian covid certificates would be expanded even further.
"It's certain that this will be discussed in case the situation continues to deteriorate. For now, we've got stagnant (infection) numbers, meaning that our numbers have decreased somewhat, but in any case we'll continue to talk about it because our strategy is to closely monitor the situation and expand or reduce measures at any given time,'' said Capak, stating that his statement was taken out of context earlier on.
He says the first day of Croatian covid certificates being needed to access state and public services went well.
"Whenever such a measure is adopted, which is related to infrastructure, certain activities carried out by healthcare services, coronavirus testing sites, the willingness of people to accept things... there are always some problems, but I'd say that it went well. What we now know is that the introduction of covid certificates in healthcare and social care facilities went very well, there were only a few people who didn't want to be tested, and many of them were vaccinated. The measure obviously has its effect, and the aim of that measure is to protect people’s health in the workplace. I think this has gone very well, we had almost 54,000 people tested and among them, almost 1300 people who turned out positive, they are now in ten-day isolation and won't continue to spread the disease further which will contribute to a better epidemiological situation,'' explained Capak.
When asked by the manager how long free coronavirus testing will be performed for unvaccinated employees at the expense of their employer, Capak answered that the measure was introduced with an unlimited duration, but that nobody should be under any illusions that it will go on for long in reality.
"It will be discussed, it will be decided, but it will certainly not be for a long time. Everyone will be given the opportunity to think about it and decide to get vaccinated, there are enough vaccines for people, mass vaccination sites are available to everyone to us, everyone can come and be vaccinated. It's necessary to wait for the people who have now decided to get vaccinated to receive their certificates, and then the state should decide to stop paying for this free coronavirus testing and then those who still don't want to be vaccinated will need to pay for it themselves. Those who cannot be vaccinated for various medical reasons are exempt from the testing measure,'' Capak told HRT.
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