ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - Zagreb's public transportation company ZET reported on Thursday that currently 390 tram and bus drivers were on sick leave, mainly due to infection with coronavirus or self-isolation and therefore some delays were inevitable.

This city company has 266 trams and 480 buses in its fleet. The company transports more than a million passengers on a daily basis.

ZET says in its response to Hina's inquiry that it can provide electronic notes of excuses for commuting workers and students who happen to be late to work or school due to the current situation in public transport.

The company also asks the users of its services to have an understanding of these developments.

Mayor Tomislav Tomašević admitted today that the sick leaves were the main problem for ZET to provide services in public transport in a timely fashion.

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ZAGREB, 26 Jan 2022 - In the past 24 hours, 64 people have died in Croatia as a consequence of coronavirus, and 11,812 new cases have been identified, which means that there are currently 66,027 active cases in the country, the national COVID response team said on Wednesday.

There are currently 1,976 hospitalized COVID patients and 192 of them are on ventilators while 42,446 people are self-isolating.

By Wednesday 26 January, a total of 4,155,056 tests have been conducted, including 22,524 in the past 24 hours.

As of 25 January 2022, a total of 5,061,724 doses of a vaccine had been administered, with 56.44% of the total population or 67.18% of the adult population having been vaccinated.

A total of 2,290,566 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 2,199,638 people have been fully vaccinated, which is 64.67% of the adult population.

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January 25, 2022 - The Croatian Public Health Institute has announced new isolation rules in Croatia for children, health & social care workers, and asymptomatic persons. 

The Croatian Public Health Institute has published new recommendations on the treatment of patients, contacts and isolation, and self-isolation.

News about self-isolation applies to children, health and social workers, asymptomatic persons, and persons with a mild to moderate clinical picture.

Change in self-isolation for children
Children up to the age of 18 who have been primarily vaccinated and have recovered and received one dose of the vaccine are exempt from isolation, regardless of how much time has passed since vaccination.

Children exempted from isolation should, during the ten days of close contact with an infected person, minimize contact with people over 60 and people with severe chronic diseases and wear a mask on all occasions when immediate contact is impossible to avoid.

It is also recommended that they take a home test five to seven days after close contact with an infected person. In case of symptoms, they should be tested by rapid antigen or PCR test.

Changes in health and social care
Healthcare professionals and employees in the social welfare system whose isolation has been shortened to seven days due to a previous illness or vaccination should take a quick antigen test before returning to work (PCR can be performed if testing capacities allow) and return to work only after a negative result.

A rapid antigen test (BAT) should be performed if a person develops symptoms. In the case of a positive BAT finding, the person undergoes isolation for at least seven days, with the day of onset of symptoms being counted as day zero.

In case of negative BAT findings, it is recommended to repeat BAT after 24-48 hours. In case of repeated negative results, quarantine should be terminated after seven days, with strict adherence to epidemiological measures and continuous wearing of the mask for the next seven days.

Shortened isolation for asymptomatic persons
Isolation was shortened for asymptomatic persons and persons with a mild to moderate clinical picture who were not immunocompromised for seven days and more than four months after primary vaccination or recovery. HZJZ explicitly states that in this case, we are talking about adults.

The document below shows in detail in which cases you can be exempted entirely from quarantine, and when it lasts seven days:

Postupanje s oboljelima, ko... by Jutarnjiredakcija

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ZAGREB, 24 Jan 2022 - A total of 1,831 new COVID cases have been detected in Croatia in the past 24 hours, and 44 people have died from coronavirus infection, the national COVID response team reported on Monday.

The number of active cases stands at 57,073.

Among them are 1,926 hospitalised patients, of whom 198 are on ventilators.

A total of 42,037 people are self-isolating.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia in late February 2020, a total of 878,891 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered and 13,451 people have died from the infection.

A total of 808,367 people have recovered, including 8,301 in the past 24 hours.

So far 4,114,212 people have been tested for the virus, including 4,315 in the past 24 hours.

The current vaccination rate is 56.40% of the total population, or 67.13% of the adult population.

A total of 2,288,744 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose, and 2,196,911 have been fully vaccinated, which is 64.60% of the adult population.

ZAGREB, 23 Jan 2022 - In the last 24 hours, there have been 7,095 new cases of coronavirus infections in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Sunday.

There are currently 63,587 active cases. 1,860 of these cases are currently receiving hospital treatment, including 201 patients placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 36 more patients have died from the infection, raising the death toll to 13,407.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia in late February 2020, a total of 877,060 coronavirus cases have been registered. Of these cases, 800,066 have recovered, including 7,569 in the past 24 hours.

Croatia has conducted 4,109,897 coronavirus tests to date, including 14,525 tests in the last 24 hours when rate of positive tests was 49%.

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ZAGREB, 21 Jan 2022 - A survey of COVID-19 testing in hospitals shows that tests came back positive almost three times more among the unvaccinated staff and that booster shots provide special protection, the Croatian Institute of Public Health said on Friday.

The survey was aimed at establishing the difference in positive PCR and rapid antigen tests between fully vaccinated healthcare workers and those not vaccinated.

The survey covered 1,371 workers in 12 hospitals, of whom 831 were vaccinated (60.61%) and 540  were unvaccinated, and 3.95 tests were done per worker on average.

Among those vaccinated, 57 were positive (6.86%), while among those not vaccinated, 101 were positive (18.7%).

Out of 475 workers who received a booster shot at least two weeks before being tested, 24 were positive (5.77%), while out of 265 who did not receive it, 30 were positive (11.32%).

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ZAGREB, 21 Jan 2022 - A total of 11,114 new COVID cases have been detected by PCR tests in Croatia in the past 24 hours while a further 5,556 cases have been detected with Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) bringing the total daily caseload to 16,670, and 35 people have died from COVID, the Croatian COVID response team reported on Friday.

There are currently 61,671 active cases of the infection with coronavirus in Croatia, including 1,799 hospitalized patients, 193 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia in late February 2020, a total of 859,264 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered and 13,335 people have died from the infection, while 784,258 have recovered including 8,601 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 41,682 people are now self-isolating.

To date, a total of 4,074,484 tests have been conducted, including 21,253 in the past 24 hours.

As of Thursday, a total of 5,021,663 doses of a vaccine had been administered with the vaccination rate being 56.34% of the total population or 67.06% of the adult population.

A total of 2,286,291 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 2,193,513 are fully vaccinated which is 64.50% of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - Due to its low vaccination rate, Croatia, for now, cannot consider lifting some of the COVID restrictions, and medical professionals continue to recommend compliance with the epidemiological measures in place to contain the virus, Health Minister Vili Beroš said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

He was commenting on plans by countries such as the United Kingdom and Israel, which have high vaccination rates, to lift the restrictions and the COVID pass mandate. He warned that in Croatia, a considerable number of people aged 75 and over were unvaccinated.

Despite the surge in the number of new infections, for now, there has been no increase in the number of COVID hospitalizations, so health care is also available to non-COVID patients, the health minister said.

"Today, 1,792 infected persons are being treated in hospitals, four fewer than yesterday. The COVID bed occupancy rate is 53.4 percent, which allows for other patients to be provided with the necessary health care as well," Beroš said.

Croatia today registered a record 17,489 new COVID cases, with the PCR test positivity rate reaching 51.44 percent and the rapid antigen test positivity rate 18.82 percent. The number of COVID patients on ventilators today is 195, nine fewer than on Wednesday. 

Beroš said that 18.63 percent of the total population had received an additional vaccine dose.

He noted that people being admitted to hospitals with the Omicron variant of the virus were mostly elderly and unvaccinated with other underlying conditions.

He said that the latest data published by the European Medicines Agency showed that mRNA COVID vaccines were safe during pregnancy.

The head of the national COVID response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that the travel ban on arrivals from South Africa and other African countries where the Omicron variant first appeared had been lifted given that this variant has become dominant in Croatia and Europe.

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ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been present in Croatia for several weeks now, but it "seems slightly less dangerous than was previously the case," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in his opening remarks at a regular cabinet meeting on Thursday.

"The number of new infections is not proportionately reflected in the number of hospitalizations and those placed on ventilators," Plenković said, adding that this was why the Omicron variant seemed less dangerous.

He, however, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was continuing to spread and that Omicron was spreading faster and was more infectious.

"I call on the people who have not been vaccinated yet to get vaccinated, and those who have to take a booster dose. Over 700,000 people have so far received a booster dose," the prime minister said.

Stressing the importance of trust in science and medicine, he said that the only way to protect oneself from getting infected with the novel coronavirus was a combination of vaccination and compliance with epidemiological measures.

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ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - In Croatia, 11,343 persons have tested positive in PCR tests and an additional 6,146 have been positive in rapid antigen tests in the last 24 hours, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Thus, 17,489 cases set a new record after there were 16,017 new COVID-19 cases in the country on Wednesday.

Currently, there are 59,193 active cases, including 1,792 hospitalized COVID patients, of whom 195 are placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of infection with the novel virus on 25 February 2020, there have been 848,150 cases of infection so far. Of them, 775,657 patients have recovered, including 8,315 in the last 24 hours.

The death toll has climbed by another 43 fatalities in the last 24 hours to 13,300.

To date, 64.43% of adults have fully been vaccinated.

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