February 27, 2020 - Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli comments on the coronavirus and its effects on Croatian tourism so far.

HRTurizam reports that the panic and spread of mass hysteria around the coronavirus is of no use to anyone, and many experts and scientists are calling for the voice of reason.

Today, Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli was the voice of reason at a session of the Croatian Government, stating that 24,500 tourists are currently staying in Croatia, or about 3% more guests than at the same time last year.

"There is still no major decline, except of course from the eastern markets, such as China and South Korea, as expected. In the first month, we had an increase of about 70% from the Chinese market, and now in February, a decrease of 60% was achieved, so we got closer to zero.”

As for the impact of the current situation on tourism revenue, Capelli noted that the first three months affect somewhere around 5%, while the first six months affect 27% of total tourism revenue.

“So the first three months will not have a significant impact on total tourism revenue. The biggest eventual cancellations that occur are in business and congress tourism, which is about reservations for March. Easter is earlier this year, so it won't even be a true picture of what's going to happen in the rest of the tourist season. The real picture will be shown by the situation in May, when the biggest arrivals are achieved because tourists connect holidays."

Cappelli added that in the last two years we have a new tendency in tourism through last minute bookings, i.e., our guests only book their arrival in May and June for the peak tourist season.

"So far, we do not have any cancellations for the main part of the tourist year; our markets are still stable. Positive data shows that we have a 3% increase in interest from the German market as well as from 7% to 8% in the UK this year. So for now, we do not feel any disadvantages, except for a slight halt to bookings, which was to be expected in this situation. There is no room to panic, the government headquarters manages the situation in real-time and all services are fully prepared,” Cappelli concluded.

"We need to stop any panic and big shopping trips for supplies, because we are not in this situation or at this stage at all," said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, adding that the Government will remain 100% transparent and prompt about all relevant information to the public.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of February, 2020, Croatian PM Plenkovic claimed that Croatia has recognised the gravity of the coronavirus situation on time and has told residents of Croatia to carry on living as normal.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday that the public health situation surrounding the current coronavirus outbreak is under control because Croatia has recognised the situation and its severity on time, again urging citizens to live normally and be calm and responsible. This ''keep calm and carry on'' style message was followed by an expression of the Croatian Government's desire to minimise negative consequences as much as possible.

"Three cases [of coronavirus in Croatia] have now been confirmed, but the public health situation is under control. I'd like to appeal to my fellow citizens and let them know that there is no reason for buying any extra supplies, going shopping to such an extent that groceries disappear from the shelves. Live your lives normally, all the services that need to operate will continue to operate, so please just be calm and responsible,'' said Plenkovic from the latest Government session.

He emphasised that the Croatian Government's goal is to ensure the health security of people in Croatia, emphasising that the National Civil Protection Headquarters coordinates all activities and that they will continue to meet and report on things daily.

PM Plenkovic said that Croatia has recognised the coronavirus situation on time, and now the most important tasks will be in the hands of the health care institutions and their staff, but also for other services, too.

"We, with particular emphasis on the economic sectors, will take care to keep in mind how to deal with the unpredictable effects of circumstances such as external shock. Our goal is to minimise any negative consequences. We will be being careful,'' the Prime Minister Plenkovic said.

Make sure to follow our politics page for more on Croatian and European politics. Follow this page for rolling information on coronavirus in Croatia.

Igor Rudan is a Professor of International Health and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. The Croatian professor issued a press release intended for the Croatian media and its representatives in the form of a Facebook post on his personal account. 

We have transmitted and translated the post in its entirety below:

''I would like to thank everyone for the truly incredible amount of interest and calls that came to me today from virtually all of the media in the Republic of Croatia, to try to calm the atmosphere that has begun to emerge in Croatia because of the first COVID-19 coronavirus patients, as an internationally recognised expert in the field of global health.

I hope you can understand that as the director of a major global health research centre and the head of a World Health Organisation Collaborative Centre at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, I've a lot of work to do over recent days and it's completely impossible for me to respond to your individual requests. Therefore, in this way, I'll try, to at least to some extent, fulfill my social task as a scientist who has been involved in this field for a long time and intensively so, and to share some of my thoughts with everyone who has started to feel anxious about this new pandemic in the 21st century.

In addition, I have agreed to be a guest of Mr. Aleksander Stankovic this Sunday, 03/01/2020. on the "Sunday at 2" show. On top of that, I also agreed to accept an interview from Nenad Jaric Dauenhauer for Index.hr which should be published a week later, on around 08/03/2020.

As well as that, I'll write something for "Vecernji list", of which I'm a columnist. All other media have the right to publish sequels to the series I started on Facebook called "Quarantine Wuhan", in which, throughout the course of this pandemic, I'll systematically explain everything that I think is essential for in-depth understanding and good information about everything that's going on. I really won't be able to offer much more than that, so I'd like to sincerely apologise to everyone in advance.

Whenever I return to Croatia for shorter or longer visits, my friends humorously warn me: "Igor, here in Croatia, caution is not enough. Paranoia is needed!". If this is true, I'm afraid some people have begun to apply this kind of thinking to the new coronavirus situation. I'd like to say that caution is still sufficient in this case, but paranoia is not really needed.

But the question is just how much caution should this be? Although it's not right for a serious scientist to predict anything about the spread of a completely new and unknown virus to the entire human population in the world, and to predict each individual event, over the past two months, we've gathered enough information about the new COVID-19 coronavirus for at least some predictions.

If the new coronavirus completely spreads over Croatia over time and manages to circumvent the many preventive measures currently in place, its casualties should be at least approximately comparable to the deaths from flu or road traffic accidents over the same period. This means that some sound caution is advisable. This caution is reasonable as long as it's at the same level as the mild concern you may feel when sitting in your car preparing for a longer journey, or when you hear on the news that the flu has arrived in Croatia.

If you feel the fear of the new coronavirus more than when you sit behind the wheel or hear that the flu is already well known to you, it means that that fear is no longer reasonable and that you've begun to succumb to panic. This panic is triggered by the constant media coverage and the way it's highlighted, rather than by the generally accepted and scientifically based knowledge of coronavirus. If you've started to behave differently than you usually do during the winter months, during the flu epidemic, for example, such collecting food supplies or wearing masks down the street, this is again not a behaviour that is in line with the actual magnitude of the danger.

People these days, however, often ask me why is so much written about coronavirus and why do people care so much, when the same level of attention isn't given to flu, given that flu may be a more dangerous disease? The reason is partly because flu has been a well-known disease for decades, comes back every year, and we have experience with its manifestation in tens of millions of people worldwide, we know how to develop vaccines against it beforehand, and we've started to get the first somewhat effective drugs out onto the market.

Unlike the flu, the new coronavirus is unknown to us and we're most cautious about not being surprised by it. If this virus is of any interest at the moment, then it's to adapt to the human species as its new reservoir in which it will continue to multiply, and not kill us.

The virus, now spreading through the human species, continues to mutate in order to adapt to us as quickly as possible. Many of these mutations will make it less dangerous for our health, as it will make us more fit. However, some random mutations could make it more dangerous, and we need to be on our guard until we get better acquainted with it and the pandemic is over. It's unlikely that this new coronavirus will mutate in such a way that it could become significantly more dangerous in those who have been infected than it is now, but we'll definitely be able to assert that only when the pandemic is over.

I hope that these thoughts will at least calm my readers a little bit, and I'll offer more detailed information, if everything goes to plan, on the "Sunday at 2" programme, in my interview for Index.hr, in my new columns in ''Vecernji list'', and continuously here on Facebook, as well as through the "Quarantine Wuhan" series, which will slowly follow the development of this pandemic and its most interesting stories.

I'd also like to point out to Croatian media representatives that our top scientist Petra Klepac works at the famous London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and she is involved in the modelling of infectious diseases, namely possible epidemics and pandemics of coronaviruses. If you know of more Croatian experts in the world who are involved in this field, be sure to refer to them in the comments below. Also, help share this by making this expert view of the coronavirus go "viral" before the coronavirus itself in Croatia becomes "viral", so there will be less unnecessary fear.

Thank you all for your interest and feel free to share my follow-up posts on the pandemic.

Prof. dr. sc. Igor Rudan, FRSE

Director of the Center for Global Health, University of Edinburgh
Director of the World Health Organization Collaborative Center, University of Edinburgh
Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Global Health''

This text was written by Igor Rudan and translated by Lauren Simmonds

For rolling information and updates in English on coronavirus in Croatia, as well as other lengthy articles written by Croatian epidemiologist Igor Rudan, follow our dedicated section.

February 27, 2020 - Following the current situation with the coronavirus, Croatian national carrier Croatia Airlines continues to operate all scheduled flights to all European destinations.

HRTurizam reports that since January 23 this year, the company has been continuously monitoring and following the recommendations of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, Croatian Civil Aviation Agency, Star Alliance, International Air Transport Association (IATA) and other Croatian and international competent institutions and associations regarding the current situation around the coronavirus.

Croatia Airlines' Crisis and Emergency Management Office is actively monitoring the situation and continually plans and takes all necessary steps to keep the health of passengers, aircraft crew and all other employees of the company to the highest possible level, emphasized Croatia Airlines, and added:

The company continuously informs its employees about all current information and new findings regarding the coronavirus in Croatia and abroad, advising on the necessary measures and forms of behavior. The company's operating manuals prescribe procedures and processes for detecting infectious disease in crew members or passengers, and the company is in constant and direct contact with all the airports at which its aircraft land to coordinate procedures and processes regarding the possible occurrence of an infected person with the coronavirus. In addition, the company also has access and means to disinfectants and aircraft disinfection, if necessary, Croatia Airlines concluded. 

Otherwise, Croatia Airlines planes will fly direct to regular destinations in 40 destinations in 26 countries during this year's tourist season.

The third case of coronavirus was confirmed in Croatia on Wednesday. A Croatian man has been diagnosed who works in Italy and is based in Rijeka.

The Clinic for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljević ”in Zagreb reported the news that a third case of the coronavirus infection has been confirmed.

"The man works in Parma, Italy. He is housed in a hospital in Rijeka," the Civil Protection Directorate announced.

"The patient became infected in Italy. The diagnosis was performed at the Infectious Diseases Clinic. He will be in isolation until he is healed. The disease is mild," Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CES), said.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.

February 26, 2020 - The Split Tourist Board comments on coronavirus and its effect on tourism.  

The extent to which coronavirus will affect tourism in Split is still unknown, but as the Split Tourist Board director Alijana Vukšić revealed, the bookings are going according to plan for now. Still, they will know more after the Berlin fair, reports Dalmatinski Portal.

“The World Tourism Organization recommends that travel is not canceled and that tourist traffic is running normally,” said Vukšić.

She also said that they are being cautious and monitoring the situation day by day, but the best indicator will be the recent Berlin Fair. Everyone is waiting for the situation to develop by then.

“Given that tourism is a susceptible industry, the appearance of coronaviruses will surely be affected; we just hope it will be short-lived and that the situation will normalize quickly. A large part of our fellow citizens live solely on tourism and, therefore, we do not need to raise tensions and be too worried, but we have to be careful,” the director concluded.

A second case of coronavirus infection was confirmed in Croatia overnight. The person was in close contact with the person identified as the first case, and a third person who was in contact has initially tested negative, the head of the Fran Mihaljević hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotić, said on Wednesday.

The persons infected are exhibiting mild symptoms, they receive the necessary medication and no complications are expected, Markotić told a press conference at the national civil protection headquarters.

"We have started to administer an antiviral drug that is otherwise used in HIV cases because it might be effective," she added.

Media say that the second person to contract the coronavirus in Croatia is the brother of the young man who tested positive on Tuesday. The young man works with the Ericsson Nikola Tesla company in Zagreb. Last week he had been to Milan, Italy with his girlfriend to watch a Champions League match; she tested negative.

A total of 72 people in Croatia have been tested for coronavirus so far.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

As Index/Zoran Vitas writes on the 25th of February, 2020, well known Croatian scientist prof. dr. sc. Ivan Đikić from the University of Goethe in Frankfurt gave a series of tips on what to do when coronavirus, which is now in Croatia, occurs.

1. Follow the advice of the healthcare system, which includes epidemiological monitoring, the reporting of symptoms, rapid identification and confirmation of persons infected with the virus and their proper isolation. This also includes detailed and proper processing of the persons they have been in contact with. In this way, the unforeseen spread of COVID-19 will be locally curtailed.

2. Maintain proper hygiene, wash your hands, avoid places where large numbers of people are gathered where it is easy for viruses to spread, maintain the health status of chronic patients suffering from diabetes, tumours, immune diseases, and reduce smoking, etc.

3. COVID-19 is not that much more deadly than the flu virus we've become used to and more than 60,000 people die of that type of flu each and every year. However, this coronavirus is spreading quite quickly and needs an adequate response from the health system. The most vulnerable are the over-60s and chronic patients who will need special attention.

4. Proper and factual information to the public without bombastic headlines is essential - it's highly important for the public to be properly informed about the spread of the virus and the dangers it carries and to receive accurate instructions on the measures which need to be taken.

5. A culture of assistance and compassion in society is needed, not the stigmatisation of those who have become sick. The media hysteria of stigmatising individuals can lead to the covering up of cases of coronavirus, the faster spread of the sickness, attacks and unnecessary dangers to both the individual and to society.

6. Don't spread panic and hysteria in public. Excessive zeal and messages from politicians sometimes do much more harm than good. It's important to listen to the advice of physicians, scientists, epidemiologists and public health professionals.

7. Announcements of EU-wide border closures are unnecessary. Viruses know no boundaries or borders and have already spread to almost all EU countries. It's only a matter of time before this will be confirmed, but there is still no reason to panic as most infected people have benign symptoms that often go unnoticed. A unique attitude of the EU services and joint information and action sharing is needed.

8. It is especially important to understand that it is necessary to understand the science when it comes to the appearance of coronavirus and those like it. The response of the entire scientific community worldwide is very positive. Collaboration and data sharing has been made possible even with limited resources. The Chinese scientists who have played a major role in sequencing and sharing important information and the WHO, the organisation that coordinated all the information, should also be commended.

For more on coronavirus in Croatia and for rolling information as and when we receive it, follow this page.

As we reported earlier today, the first case of coronavirus in Croatia has been confirmed. The individual in question is a younger man who holds Croatian citizenship and is currently in isolation at the Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb.

The hospitalised man is said to have contracted a milder form of the illness and is in good condition.

Owing to the turn of events, the Fran Mihaljevic Clinic in Zagreb convened a press conference at 16:00 today.

As Index writes on the 25th of February, 2020, the director of the Fran Mihaljevic Clinic said there have been no new confirmed cases of infection in Croatia other than the man in question. "As far as our hospital is concerned, this is a dynamic process, so we're making extra room just in case," she said.

As for the hospitalised young man, she says there is no new information. "Isolation means that the person inside is isolated alone, he has his own toilet, he is receiving treatment and food, the only thing he is barred from is going out, as well as visits," she said.

"We currently have five people in isolation. For those in isolation, the investigations are ongoing," she said. She added that nine people in Rijeka and those in the aforementioned Zagreb clinic have been isolated so far in Croatia.

"We have one case so far, there's no need to panic, even if there are more," said Dr. Alemka Markotic of Zagreb's Fran Mihaljevic Clinic.

People who have been in contact with the infected patient are also being monitored and are under control but aren't in the hospital. "Anyone who has been in contact with the patient will be contacted by a medical team," she said.

Dr. Markotic said the man who has tested positive for coronavirus came to the hospital yesterday after having been in the popular Italian city of Milan with his girlfriend.

The man works at a technology company, and as was learned, he was at work on Friday. He was at a Champions League football match in Milan between Atalanta and Valencia. He went there with his girlfriend on February the 19th, 2020.

According to the information as things stand, the girl the man with coronavirus was with in Milan has not yet been tested.

Make sure to stay up to date with the situation by following this page for rolling updates as we get them.

As Index writes on the 25th of February, 2020, one case of coronavirus in Croatia has now been confirmed.

The individual in question is a younger man who is currently staying at the Infectious Diseases Clinic in Zagreb, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed.

He said that the young man is in good shape.

''We have our first patient in whom coronavirus is confirmed. He is a younger man, he has a milder form of the illness. He is in isolatation and his condition is good. He's located at the Fran Mihaljevic Hospital for Infectious Disease in Zagreb,'' Plenkovic stated.

"We got the results today at 11:30 for a Croatian citizen who was staying in Milan between February the 19th and the 21st," Health Minister Beros said.

He added that he would now focus on the contacts the individual in question had.

The director of KBC Rijeka is still expected to report on the condition of the nine Croats who were hospitalised after returning from Italy.

For more on coronavirus in Croatia as well as rolling updates as they come in, follow this page.

As Morski writes on the 23rd of February, 2020, a ship carrying parts and segments of the steel span structure for Peljesac bridge, which departed from China for Croatia on January the 25th, 2020, is scheduled to arrive in Ploce today.

This information was confirmed to Vecernji list from Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the main contractor for the construction of the long awaited Peljesac bridge in Dalmatia.

There are no Chinese workers aboard the ship who would be remaining in Croatia following its arrival, only the ship's actual crew members. CRBC said that there were a total of 22 crew members on board the ship due to arrive in Ploce and that they were all healthy.

The Institute for Public Health of Dubrovnik-Neretva County says they have not yet received the announcement of the arrival of the ship from China to the marina on Sunday. Dr. Miljenko Ljubić, Head of the Department of Epidemiology, explained that when the ship arrives at the Port of Ploce, it will undergo full border police control and then border sanitary inspection.

The crew members will all be interviewed and asked if they have had any of the symptoms of coronavirus infection in the last fourteen days and they will be put under medical supervision if the need to do so arises. The ship's route from China ran across Singapore and the Suez Canal to Croatia's Ploce habour. The sailors will have spent almost a month on the ship prior to their arrival in Croatia, and it should be noted that the incubation period of coronavirus lasts for fourteen days.

A total of 29 segments and parts for Peljesac bridge are expected to be delivered to Ploce, making up the first contingent of the steel span structure of the future structure, with the installation of the bridge's structure scheduled to begin in March.

According to Croatian roads' data, the shipment includes the base segments of the central pillars which will be in the sea and the individual segments of steel span structure intended for the lateral part of Peljesac bridge.

Segments of the steel span structure for the bridge are being manufactured at two plants in China that have recently been temporarily closed due to coronavirus. As they explained from CRBC, production was temporarily halted at these factories for the safety and protection of workers.

Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more.

Coronavirus has been and continues to be a real threat to world health, and with numerous Chinese workers working on constructing the long awaited Peljesac bridge in Dalmatia, fears recently arose that the virus could be present and coronavirus saw the factory supplying the bridge in China shut down.

As Morski writes on the 18th of February, 2020, despite recent worries about coronavirus and the fact that a Chinese company with Chinese workers is busy building the bridge which is an enormous strategic project for Croatia, there doesn't seem to be any cause for concern. According to those present on Peljesac bridge's site, the number of workers there is the same and thank they're all apparently healthy.

The commander of the ''Forca'' motor tanker, which supplies the Chinese ships and cranes with fuel, Miro Radic, says that the situation on the ground is normal, and works are currently going on without any downtime for now, despite the recent concerns and the suspension of the Chinese supplier factory.

''They're all workers are from China, and there's the same amount of them working there as there were before the virus appeared. What should be emphasised is that all of the Chinese workers on the bridge are healthy and that there are no traces of coronavirus in Klek, and that these people have had no contact with China since the virus appeared. Me and my crew follow safety instructions and wear protective suits, hats and gloves, though I repeat, there is no sign of the virus,'' explains Radic, in an attempt to calm the incredible hysteria among the general population caused by global media panic.

Coronavirus worries aside, Peljesac bridge should be opened on July the 31st, 2021, and it has been confirmed from Croatian Roads (Hrvatske ceste) that due to the new circumstances, the contractor has not requested an extension of the deadline.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for more.