ZAGREB, 10 June 2022 - In the last 24 hours, 285 coronavirus cases, out of 1,835 tests, and two related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

There are 2,125 active cases, including 165 hospitalised patients, six of whom are on ventilators.

To date, Croatia has registered 1,139,319 coronavirus cases, the death toll is 16,014, and 68.76% of the adult population has been fully vaccinated.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 4 Nov 2021 - The teachers' Facebook group Staff Room on Thursday asked Education Minister Radovan Fuchs to expedite the testing of students and reduce waiting times for test results in order to contribute to curbing the spread of the coronavirus infection and reduce the need for online classes.

In an open letter to the minister, the group says that over the last few weeks the epidemiological situation in schools has been deteriorating even though the ministry, in cooperation with the Public Health Institute, has done a lot to prevent schools from turning into infection hotspots.

That the situation in schools has been deteriorating is evidenced by the fact that almost all schools in Croatia have switched to online classes after the autumn school break, the group said.

"Even though we are talking about only a few days, we believe this is only a short-term solution," they said.

The group notes that due to the increased pressure on the epidemiological service and the large number of people who are being tested, students in some cases are tested only five or six days after exhibiting symptoms.

Students have to wait for test results for up to two days, during which time all their close contacts in the classroom continue to attend physical classes while contacts outside the school are also at risk, the group says, warning that without self-isolation, the virus continues to spread.

This increases the likelihood of entire classes or even schools having to switch to distance learning, the group says, calling on the minister to do his best for the process of testing of students to be expedited and waiting time for results to be reduced.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

July 28, 2021 - The new ECDC map, which places the Croatian coast in an orange zone, has alerted all localities and tourism boards in the region. Some destinations, such as Zrće beach on the island of Pag, have adopted their own measures and requirements to combat the pandemic effectively and save tourism.

After last week's session of the Government, when it was said that new measures apply to Dalmatian counties this week, which primarily emphasizes the control of the implementation of already introduced anti-pandemic measures, Večernji List interviewed Zrće beach concessionaires and Noa Beach Club owners to find out what this means for them.

The new measures came into force today, what do you plan to actually change compared to the previous measures? Will there be parties on Zrće beach?

"There will be entertainment and tourism, we are not giving up on the season or our business. The catering industry, as well as the organizers of concerts, festivals, and traditional events and musicians, are definitely among the most affected groups. We all struggle with the same problems. Precisely because we knew what all could await us this season, we were ready from day one. For a start, all our 400 employees were vaccinated with two doses of vaccine", says Josipa Žižić, spokesperson for the Noa group, and adds: "We were the last to go to the Noa Beach Club with the opening, to make sure everything was according to protocol. We have 100 people in the security of all entrance routes and 4 teams of medical staff for testing and verification''.

''We adhere to everything that the Headquarters and the Institute point us to. At the moment, we only let people into the facilities who have been vaccinated, have a PCR or Covid antigen test made when entering the Covid free zone. We use the CovidGO mobile application, which reads the correctness of EU digital COVID certificates, and which is impossible to bypass, and if all the conditions are not met, we do not allow entry. We go a step further, we plan to introduce even stricter measures - a quick test will no longer be valid for 48 hours, each entry will mean a new test and a spot check that the test is negative. I think that this direction is good, considering that we have not had any infected people yet and that everything is going according to plan without any complications."

Are there any plans to tighten more measures on Zrće beach, if possible, given that you are already adhering to all the prescribed measures?

"Every day, over 4,000 people enter through our three checkpoints. From 01.07.2021, we test over 1000-1200 people every day at a total of three entrances with over 20 wardens. At the same time, we control the entrance to the beach and the control of the entrance to the clubs, which would mean that each visitor goes through the checkpoints twice, all for the purpose of respecting the measures and quality control of our visitors and their safety. For each entry to the beach, in the Covid free zone, it is necessary to have a Covid passport proving vaccination, ie that they have overcome the disease in the previous 180 days, have a PCR or rapid test. All those who do not have a Covid passport issued for vaccination or overcoming the disease, will have to, according to the next stricter measures we plan to introduce, make a test that is valid only for that one entry", said Sime Oštarić, director of Nasa doo. We also asked what exactly these stricter measures mean: “With each entry, visitors will have to have a new test, so we will even leave the practice of 48 hours of the valid test. There are currently no infected people on Zrće beach, tourism has been taking place here for some time, and there are no hotspots, with these measures I do not know how it would be. Even the Hideout festival was canceled, which was usually attended by a lot of visitors from Great Britain", answers Oštarić.

"This is what we live on, it is in our least interest for anyone to leave Zrće beach infected. We plan to continue to follow the instructions and, I repeat, tighten the measures. If all guests are vaccinated, if they take a test on the spot and if we no longer allow even a 48-hour test, and later we only receive vaccinated on the model of Greece, which has already started to do so, then really the danger of hotspots should not and will not be. So far, we have controlled over 60,000 people and tested over 20,000, and statistics show that 90% of our guests are vaccinated mostly with two doses of the vaccine. Moreover, since the beginning of the season, in total with the city of Novalja, at 6 points, we have tested more visitors than the whole of Croatia", adds Žižić.

One of the suggestions was on-site vaccination?

"As we announced, we plan to soon introduce a measure according to which only vaccinated guests can enter, just as Greece has already done. Regarding vaccination on the spot, we discuss this with the competent institutions, we will be guided by their instructions, recommendations, and possibilities. But this is certainly another method that we are willing to implement and organize so that Zrće beach and Noa remain a safe place as before", Žižić answers.

If you want to know more about Zrće and the island of Pag, be sure to check the Total Croatia guide, where you will find everything you need to know from how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, and what to do on one of the most popular islands of Croatia. Now in your language!

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

July 18, 2021 - The music festival and concert industry has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, and in order to help the organizers, the Ministry of Culture has decided to co-finance rapid antigen tests in cooperation with the Croatian Music Union.

According to Goran Rihelj from HrTurizam.hr, the Ministry of Culture has decided that, in cooperation with the Croatian Music Union (HGU), it will co-finance the costs of rapid antigen tests with HRK 5,000,000 for the purpose of conducting concert activities of interest to the Republic of Croatia. The profession welcomes such measures and says it will continue to work on business models that preserve health and the economy.

"Due to the new conditions of the event, paying for tests for visitors is a new cost that sometimes spills over to visitors, and sometimes to the organizers. Therefore, the help of co-financing rapid antigen tests announced by the Ministry of Culture is more than welcome ", said the President of the HGK Event Industry Association Boris Kovaček, adding that the industry expects further work on ways to safely implement events.

Tomo in der Mühlen, president of the Association of Creative and Cultural Industries of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, agrees, saying that entrepreneurs in the industry support all aid measures because it is extremely important that the event industry works. "We must constantly work on improving the models according to which we can better organize controlled events. That's the only way. Otherwise, if we do not develop a model of how we can do this and disable work, we will end up in a situation where some exceptions, where the organizers do not respect the measures, become more common, and no one in the industry wants that, events are a great motivation and incentive for young people to be vaccinated.

The ministry defined concert programs of interest to the Republic of Croatia as those with more than half the participation of Croatian performers, continuous and confirmed presence in the cultural life of the country, high level of quality, intended for different age profiles of the audience. Co-financing is carried out in the form of grants, up to 50 kuna per conducted antigen test of visitors.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

For more news about Croatia, click here.

June the 13th, 2021 - Croatian home coronavirus tests kits have found themselves on the shelves of various shops, and not only in pharmacies.

One of the biggest issues people have faced throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been testing. Whether it be the long waits for something unpleasant or the fact that they've had to part with quite the significant sum of money just to have a swab rather uncomfortably shoved up their nose - it hasn't been a popular process.

The costs of tests has been varied, but the average is around 500-700 kuna just for a nasal swab/PCR test which is deemed ''the gold standard'' for detecting the presence of the novel virus, as well as for being allowed to board a plane and travel to many countries. Now, as the epidemiological picture across Europe begins to improve as the vaccination rollout picks up its pace, rapid antigen tests are also commonly accepted for travel, and they're far cheaper.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian home coronavirus tests, named the Boson Rapid tests, are designed to quickly determine the SARS-CoV-2 virus antigen in a person's anterior nasal swabs within the first seven days of symptom onset.

These at-home tests are very easy to use as they require no additional equipment or special training, and the results are available within 15 to 20 minutes following the test having been performed, with an alleged impressive accuracy of 98.72 percent. 

These Croatian home coronavirus tests will relieve pressure not only on existing testing centres but also on people's pockets, as they're a lot cheaper than the ''gold standard'' PCR tests typically performed at testing sites. 

A list of dm stores across the Republic of Croatia offering these over-the-counter Croatian home coronavirus tests and their accompanying addresses are available here.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of testing centres and vaccination points up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and choose your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 27 May 2021 - Croatia has registered 375 new cases of coronavirus infection and ten more infected people have died in the past 24 hours, the national COVID response team said on Thursday.

There are currently 2,968 active cases in the country and 968 hospitalized patients with 95 of them on ventilators.

To date, a total of 1,994,545 people have been tested for the contagion, with 6,319 tests conducted in the past 24 hours and the share of the positive tests being 6%.

As of Thursday, 1,645,332 doses of vaccines have been administered. To date, 1,221,109 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 424,223 have received both shots.

Since 25 February when the first coronavirus case was detected in Croatia, to date, there have been 355,296 registered cases and 7,981 people have died as a consequence.

A total of 344,347 people have recovered of whom 509 in the past 24 hours.

There are currently 12,259 people in self-isolation.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and test centers up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 10 May 2021 - In the last 24 hours, there have been 253 new coronavirus infections in Croatia and 34 people have died, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

Currently, there are 8,251 active cases, including 2,033 who are hospitalized, of whom 229 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of this infection, a total of 344,747 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, and 7,503 have died.

So far, more than 1.88 million tests have been conducted.

A total of 328,993 people have recovered, including 1,589 in the last 24 hours.

There are 24,039 people in self-isolation.

By 9 May, 1,131,607 vaccine doses were administered. A total of 879,312 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 252,295 have received both doses.

ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - Foreign tourists who generate at least one bed night in Zagreb can be tested for COVID-19 at 50% of the price and about 20 have already been tested over the weekend, the director of the Zagreb Tourist Board (TZGZ), Martina Bienenfeld, said on Tuesday.

TZGZ is the first regional tourist board in Croatia that has opened a testing station for foreign tourists as had previously been proposed by Tourism and Sports Minister Nikolina Brnjac.

Testing to be co-financed

In addition to opening the testing station, TZGZ has decided to cofinance testing that is conducted during weekends and public holidays, Bienenfeld told Hina.

TZGZ will cover half the cost of testing for tourists, she said, estimating that the greatest demand will be in the coming period and that that will depend on the percentage of inoculated tourists from the countries they are coming from, but also of employees in tourism and citizens themselves, and finally on the introduction of Digital Green Certificates at the EU level.

Testing during weekdays will be at the normal price and already about ten Zagreb hotels are providing testing services. Testing can also be conducted at Zagreb's airport.

Providing opportunity for tourists to extend their stay

"One of the important reasons why we decided to co-finance testing in the days noted is that this provides the opportunity for tourists to extend their stay in Zagreb, because they do not have to worry where and when they can be tested when returning to their countries and they can avoid quarantine," said Bienefeld.

All the necessary information regarding testing is available at www.infozagreb.hr/korona-virus in various languages, she said and added that the first tourists tested this way last weekend (10 and 11 April) were from Italy, Denmark, Germany and Albania.

Bienefeld said that since the beginning of the year until 11 April, almost 65,000 tourists had visited Zagreb and they generated 177,500 bed nights, which is about 47% of arrivals and 58% of bed nights generated in the comparable period in 2020.

Compared to the record 2019 year, that is about 27% and 37% of arrivals and bed nights respectively. 

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

January 19, 2021 – 45 people tried to enter Croatia with fake PCR tests this weekend alone. They were caught by Croatian police, detained at the border and reported to the State's Attorney office. If found guilty, each faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison

Some 45 people tried to enter Croatia through the borders of one county with fake PCR tests this past weekend.

Travel from Bosnia and Herzegovina into Croatia currently requires the production of a negative PCR test or a doctor's certificate proving you have successfully passed through a COVID-19 infection in recent months.

Since the ban on entering Croatia from Bosnia and Herzegovina without a negative PCR test was introduced, fake PCR tests are increasingly being forged. Border police and customs officers at crossings in Brod-Posavina County have met many people trying to cross the border with fake PCR tests. But, this weekend a new record number of forged tests were found on the county's border crossings.

According to a statement from the Brod-Posavina Police Department, as many as 45 attempts to enter the country with fake PCR tests were discovered on Saturday and Sunday.

"At the Stara Gradiška border crossing, police officers determined that 43 persons, mostly citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented fake PCR tests issued in BiH at the border control. At the Slavonski Brod border crossing, two people were registered who gave forged tests," the Brod-Posavina police reported.

Police officers file criminal charges against all those suspected of committing the criminal offence of forgery of a document with the Municipal State Attorney's Office in Slavonski Brod. If found guilty, such persons face up to three years in prison.

The overall number of people detained on Croatia's border with fake PCR tests this weekend could actually be higher - the figures of 45 persons detained with fake PCR tests were released by the police of just one county in Croatia - Brod-Posavina County. A further eight Croatian counties exist along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each has border crossings between the two countries.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2020 - Croatian Public Health Institute director Krunoslav Capak said on Thursday that the latest restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus outbreak would be combined with the wide use of rapid antigen tests and that this was expected to result in a fall in new coronavirus cases over the next four weeks.

"Right now our epidemiological situation is concerning. Epidemiologists have made their suggestions about individual measures and their effectiveness. The most important thing is to reduce the intensity of social contacts and keep the mobility of people as low as possible," Capak said at the presentation of the latest package of measures.

Croatia's incidence rate among highest in Europe

Capak said he believed the latest measures, combined with rapid antigen tests and self-isolation, would help reverse the present trend over the next four weeks and ensure that the number of new infections started falling.

"Our incidence rate is currently among the highest in Europe, above 900 cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days. We have the 13th highest mortality rate in the European Union. The number of hospitalisations and the number of people on ventilators are also rising, and we also have a large number of deaths," Capak said.

Asked why the number of new cases detected by rapid antigen tests was not included in daily statistics, he said that the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention did not recognise the antigen test but only the PCR test. He added that Slovakia had not reported the results of its massive antigen testing campaign to the WHO. 

"At this point, we are not including these figures. We are tracking them separately and will release them separately," Capak said.

No exemptions from measures

Capak said it was not possible for individual counties to be exempt from the latest restrictions because they were all colour-coded red.

"The incidence rate is so high that there is no need to consider any exemptions. In certain area the measures can only be tightened and not eased," he said.

Asked why the government had not at the same time presented a plan for easing the measures so that people could better organise their lives and work obligations, Capak said that Croatia had opted for a strategy of monitoring the epidemic on a daily basis.

"Some countries plan in advance the steps they will take when new cases reach a certain number, but Croatia is not among them. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis, and we will discuss the easing of the measures in due course," Capak said.