April 16, 2020 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic spoke to RTL Danas about loosening the stringent measures introduced by the National Civil Protection Headquarters because of the coronavirus pandemic, which expires in three days according to the first plan.
"On Sunday, those first measures expire, and we will probably extend them, because the most important thing is to follow the advice of epidemiologists, and they say that we should have a drop for five to seven days before we begin lifting measures. Of course, we talk about it daily, and we also understand the situation when we talk about the economy, about securing living conditions. We are moving along a narrow margin, above all protecting our health and lives, but we need to think about when and what measures could be discounted," Bozinovic said.
"That Sunday does not mean that on Tuesday or another day, the measures cannot be lifted. It appears that our measures were good, Croatia has an excellent result when looking at the average number of patients. Of course, we are sorry for every person who died, but our health care system is not as burdened as in other countries and we hope it will allow us to think about relaxing measures soon. It should be clear, loosening the measures probably also means increasing the risk when talking about the number of patients," he added.
The first measures lasted 30 days, but new ones are unlikely to be introduced for that period.
"We are thinking of making it shorter, but it can change in five days, not in 15, not in 30. It all depends on the epidemiological situation because it is our priority to save lives," Bozinovic said.
He did not want to say whether there would be some indulgence on Sunday because we still have a few more days until then: "Let's see how we will deal with the fight in the coming days and that will certainly be one of the elements on which we will decide. We cannot talk about dates. At this point, the date would certainly be breaking news, but no one can rationally say that something will be on this day. No one knows."
The government will decide on everything, says Bozinovic.
"The Headquarters is here, it is the government headquarters, and it is the government that controls the whole process. The Headquarters exists as a government body in order for some decisions to be made urgently, an operational body is needed," Bozinovic commented.
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