ZAGREB, Dec 19, 2020 - In the past 24 hours 2,752 coronavirus cases and 78 COVID deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases has reached 20,118, including 2,873 patients receiving hospital treatment, 306 of whom are on ventilators.

Since February 25, Croatia has registered 192,987 coronavirus cases, 3,101 COVID deaths, and 169,768 recoveries, including 3,853 in the past 24 hours.

Currently 57,544 persons are self-isolating.

To date 941,420 persons have been tested for the virus, including 10,062 in the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 18, 2020 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 3,272 new cases of coronavirus after testing 10,849 people, while 68 people have died, the national COVID response team reported on Friday.

There are currently 2,918 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 and 294 are on ventilators.

The total number of active cases stands at 21,297.

Since February 25, when the first cases was confirmed in Croatia, a total of 190,235 people have been infected with the novel virus, of whom 3,023 have died and 165,915 have recovered, with 4,352 recovering in the past 24 hours.

Currently, there are 54,587 people in self-isolation.

So far 931,358 people have been tested for the virus, including 10,849 in the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec, 2020- Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ)  head Krunoslav Capak said on Monday that Croatia last week registered a twofold increase in new COVID-19 cases and that the country's epidemiological situation was the worst in the European Union.

According to Capak, from December 7 to 13, Croatia registered a 7.5% increase in the number of new infections compared to a 3.7% increase in the week before that.

The incidence rate in the entire Croatia is high, but the differences between counties are considerable, with Medjimurje County reporting the highest and Dubrovnik-Neretva County the lowest incidence rate.

We are in the last place in the EU when it comes to the number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, Capak said. As for the mortality rate, we are in the 16th place of the 27 EU countries, with 628.5 deaths per a million inhabitants.

Capak also said that today people in self-isolation account for 40% of the new infections.

"This shows that the system of searching for contact has not fallen apart despite operating with difficulties due to a large number of new infections," he added.

Vaccination programme by end of week

Asked about the number of health workers that want to be vaccinated, Capak confirmed the unofficial data that slightly more than 50% of health workers want to, adding that they are still collecting data on that.

He stressed that the vaccination campaign had already started, and by the end of the week the government would adopt a vaccination programme although it was not yet known when the vaccines would arrive and be distributed.

In the coming days, science conferences on vaccination will be organised, and there will also be a media campaign.

Asked about people who will not be able to get vaccinated, the head of Zagreb's Dr Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, said that that would be apply to people allergic to a vaccine ingredient.

She added that they expected there would be very few such cases and that people should get informed on their own about their allergic reactions to medicines.

Croatia reports 1,472 new coronavirus cases, 65 deaths in last 24 hours

Croatia has registered 1,472 new coronavirus cases and 65 infection-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Monday morning.

A total of 2,857 infected people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 and 284 of them are on ventilators. Currently, there are 22,769 active cases in the country and 54,042 people are in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 177,358 people have been infected with the novel virus, 2,705 of them have died and 151,884 have recovered, including 3,673 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 14, 2020 - Croatia has registered 1,472 new coronavirus cases and 65 infection-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Monday morning.

A total of 2,857 infected people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 and 284 of them are on ventilators. Currently, there are 22,769 active cases in the country and 54,042 people are in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 177,358 people have been infected with the novel virus, 2,705 of them have died and 151,884 have recovered, including 3,673 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 888,080 people have been tested to date, including 5,798 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 13, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 3,363 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 78 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Sunday.

Today, 2,864 COVID patients are being treated in hospitals, including 295 who are on ventilators.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Croatia stands at 25,035.

There are currently 59,388 people in self-isolation.

Since the start of the epidemic, a total of 175,886 people have contracted the novel virus, 2,640 of them have died, and 148,211 have recovered, including 3,520 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 882,282 people have been tested, 9,767 of them over the past 24 hours, the national COVID-19 management team said in its daily report.

ZAGREB, Dec 12, 2020 - In the past two weeks Croatia has had the largest number of active coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants of all European countries, show data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), published on Saturday.

Croatia fares worst among 31 European countries, with 1,194.3 active cases of the disease per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days.

It is followed by Lithuania, with 1,146.7 cases and Luxembourg, with 1,097.7 cases.

As for the mortality rate, Croatia is fourth, with a rate of 21.7.

Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary are the only other European countries that have had more fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks, according to ECDC data.

A total of 14,824,355 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in 31 European countries so far, and 369,840 patients have died.

In the last 24 hours Croatia has had 4,135 cases of coronavirus infection and 78 related fatalities, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

ZAGREB, Dec 12, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, out of 11,114 coronavirus tests performed in Croatia, 4,135, that is 37%, have returned positive, and there have been 78 COVID-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 2,562, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Saturday.

Currently, there are 25,270 active cases, including 2,792 patients who are receiving hospital treatment, and of them 295 are placed on ventilators.

As many as 63,908 people are self-isolating.Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 172,523 people have caught the novel virus, and so far, 872,515 coronavirus tests have been performed.

To date, 144,691 people have recovered from the infection including 3,793 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - After three weeks since more stringent epidemiological measures were introduced in Varazdin County, the seven-day incidence rate of new coronavirus infections has decreased by more than 10% and preliminary antigen tests in local companies have revealed a rate of 2.9% of infections.

The head of Varazdin's civil protection authority, Robert Vugrin, told a press conference on Friday that in the past 24 hours Varazdin County had registered 206 new cases of coronavirus and that 589 tests had been conducted. He said that there was a continuing decline in the share of positive cases in the number of tests taken, which in the past 24 hours was 35%.

Over the past week Varazdin County has registered 1,737 new cases of coronavirus and the seven-day incidence rate is 1,042 per 100,000 people.

There are currently 267 patients in a serious condition in Varazdin general hospital, 222 patients are in intensive care and 20 are on ventilators. Five people died as a consequence of COVID -19 in the past 24 hours.

Vugrin said that the results were visible after more stringent epidemiological measures were introduced in the county.

He explained that in the first 11 days after the measures were introduced the numbers continued to grow and nine days later a mild decline was recorded. He added that the 7-day incidence rate on 1 December was 1,169.

"Today that number is 1,042, hence it is obvious that we have recorded a fall of more than 10 per cent in the past nine days," Vugrin underlined.

County Prefect Radimir Cacic said that had the measures not been introduced the county would still have an increasing number of infections.

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) director Krunoslav Capak has said that the number of new coronavirus infections is still high, as is incidence, and that more than 50% of employees of care homes and their residents as well as medical workers want to get vaccinated.

"Our figures are still high and they differ from county to county. Varazdin County continues to have the worst statistics, with incidence being almost twice as high as the average incidence in the country," Capak said on Friday at a news conference held by the national COVID-19 response team.

The latest figures show that there are 4,396 new infections out of 11,687 tests. A week ago, on December 4, there were 3,955 infections out of 10,626 tests and a week before that, on November 27, there were 4,080 new cases out of 11,091 tests, said Capak.

The current 14-day incidence for the entire country is 1,183 per 100,000 population, while Varazdin, Medjimurje and Krapina-Zagorje counties have the highest incidence.

Istria, Dubrovnik-Neretva and Pozega-Slavonia counties have much lower incidence rates.

The only other EU country that has a higher incidence than Croatia is Luxembourg, according to Capak.

As for the mortality rate, Croatia is currently 16th in the EU, with a rate of 580.7 per one million inhabitants.

As for the share of positive tests in the total number of tests, in the last 14 days it has been 35.6%, and the total rate so far has been slightly above 23%, Capak said.

Antigen testing in Varazdin County, care homes

Capak also said that rapid antigen testing was underway in Varazdin County, that currently workers of the Calzedonia company were being tested and that of the 339 tests done, 10 had returned positive, which was a rate of less than 3%.

Testing has also started in care homes, and information on that will be provided on a weekly basis, the HZJZ head said.

As for the new criteria of the European Centre for Disease Control, according to which the results of fast antigen tests should be added to the number of confirmed infections as of December 3, Capak said that the ECDC did not pass laws.

He cited the example of Slovakia, where over a period of two weeks, two-thirds of the country's population were tested with rapid antigen tests and those results were not included in official statistics. 38,000 infections were found and daily figures ranged between 2,000 and 3,000, he said.

"Other countries act the same way as well, so this (ECDC criteria) is not a law. For the time being, we are carefully monitoring both sets of figures," Capak said.

Speaking of the relaxation of restrictions, Capak said that it was difficult to predict how the situation would develop, adding that there was no formula to calculate how cold weather and longer stay indoors would affect the figures.

He also stressed that many European counties that had announced relaxation of restrictions and opening of ski resorts had given up on such plans due to the bad epidemiological situation.

More than 50% of residents of care homes, medical workers want to get tested

As for vaccination lists, Capak said that the national COVID-19 team had requested family doctors and the HZJZ to provide them with data relevant for vaccination roll-out planning.

More than 50% of staff and residents of care homes are interested in getting vaccinated, and the situation in similar in health institutions for which data are available, Capak said.

Vaccination will be conducted according to priority, not all medical workers will be vaccinated but those who are in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, notably those exposed to aerosols, said Capak.

As for the storing of vaccines, Capak said that there were no problems with that and that the entire quantity of the Pfizer vaccine can be stored at the Institute of Immunology, KBC Rebro hospital and the Rudjer Boskovic Institute, while county HZJZ branches have additional storage capacity.

ZAGREB, December 5, 2020 -  A total of 4,084 new coronavirus cases and 70 infection-related deaths have been confirmed in Croatia in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 24,495. It includes 2,514 patients receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19, of whom 259 are on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case of the infection was confirmed in the country, 147,454 people have been infected with the novel virus, of whom 2,102 have died and 120,857 have recovered, including 3,709 in the last 24 hours.

Currently 60,581 people are in self-isolation. A total of 801,545 people have been tested to date, including 10,662 in the last 24 hours.