As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of October, 2020, a new Zagreb coronavirus testing site was opened in the eastern parking lot of the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam) this Saturday. The opening was attended by the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, and the director of the Andrija Stampar Institute, Zvonimir Sostar.

This new Zagreb coronavirus testing location was made possible by the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the Andrija Stampar Institute and the Dr. Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases in order to reduce the crowds on Gupceva zvijezda and in Rockefellerova and Mirogojska streets, because in this new Zagreb coronavirus testing location there is a large car park sufficient for everyone who will come for testing.

Testing at the new location will be conducted every day from 08:00 to 11:00, according to a report from N1. Capak said the flow at the new testing site will likely be much higher, meaning there will be less hanging around and crowding.

"Please tell people come here, not to Mirogojska and Rockefellerova. The samples taken here go to the laboratory in Rockefellerova anyway. Feel free to just come here, we'll try to deal with all the swabs that come within 24 hours. Currently, HZJZ has a slightly reduced capacity because we have several positive employees and several of them are now in self-isolation. We have the capacity to cover both this space and the space in Rockefellerova,'' said Capak.

Sostar thanked the Zagreb Fair for meeting the needs for this location and also thanked Krunoslav Capak, who, as he says, organised to put this new Zagreb coronavirus testing location into function as quickly as possible.

"This isn't a joke, nor is it a game. Coronavirus has now also entered our homes for the elderly and infirm. We have reason to worry and as such, we should act accordingly. There are no foci, the virus spreads horizontally. We have more and more families becoming infected. Epidemiologists are working from 7 in the morning until 1 in the morning,'' warned Sostar.

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October 18, 2020 - St. Catherine's Specialty Hospital is the first in Croatia to provide quick testing for COVID-19, which gives results in 15 to 30 minutes.

HRTurizam reports that the SARS-CoV-2 antigen test is an extremely valuable diagnostic test with high specificity (99.68%) and enters the family of tests performed in direct contact with the patient and for which results are obtained shortly after testing.

What is crucial and a game-changer, especially for the entire tourism sector, is that test results are obtained within 15 to 30 minutes.

Jadranka Primorac, St. Catherine's Specialty Hospital: Rapid testing was done to relieve the entire health system

Due to the high pressure on the entire health system, rapid testing that gives results in 30 minutes or less, depending on the number of simultaneous tests and the number of professional staff, will improve the overall situation and the pressure on health facilities.

“Rapid testing was done with this goal in mind, for emergency diagnosis and triage to relieve the entire health system, it is also suitable for people who have been in contact with an infected person or have clinical symptoms. It is a test of the pharmaceutical company Roche, which put the test on the market at the end of September," points out Jadranka Primorac, member of the Management Board, and adds that testing is also good for quickly testing tourists at airports.

The test price is 350 kuna, and Primorac adds that a quick COVID-19 test is done at St. Catherine's in Zagreb, in a separate unit, following all security protocols.

"We are also provided with access to the National Database so that in case of a positive test, we can enter all positive patients in the SARS-CoV-2 database," emphasizes Jadranka Primorac.

When we talk about the tourism sector, fast testing is certainly suitable for airports and all passengers who want to get tested quickly and have a negative test, which is an obligation to enter most countries.

The St. Catherine's points out that the prices of the tests are 350 kuna, and for all inquiries about the tests, you can contact them HERE.

By the way, this is a product of the pharmaceutical company Roche, the Elecsys® SARS-CoV-2 Antigen test, which according to official information from the Roche website, is a very accurate laboratory immunological test for in vitro qualitative detection of the nucleocapsid antigen SARS-CoV-2.

“We are aware that governments and health systems are under great pressure to increase the ability to test for SARS-CoV-2 to manage the spread of the virus effectively. The high-volume antigen test is a valuable addition to the portfolio to help diagnose SARS-CoV-2. The ability to quickly and correctly determine if someone has SARS-CoV-2 is crucial to inform patient management decisions and to combat the spread of COVID-19. Roche remains committed to supporting governments, healthcare professionals, and patients in the fight against this pandemic with the help of our diagnostic solutions," said Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics.

Immunological test Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Antigen works on all immunochemical analyzers that are widely available worldwide. These fully automated systems can provide test results in about 18 minutes for a single test (excluding sample collection, transport, and preparation time), with up to 300 tests per hour from a single analyzer. The aforementioned laboratory-automated antigen test allows for reduced costs and errors due to the removal of manual handling, as well as fast turnover and high throughput, according to official Roche information.

Rapid testing is a major challenge for the global recovery of tourism and a key element for air traffic activation.

Regarding the standardization of security protocols and the introduction of contactless thermal camera technology at airports, final negotiations are already underway under the auspices of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and it is a matter of months, if not weeks when they will be agreed. On the other hand, a couple of global companies from the USA and Israel have also released quick tests for COVID-19, and now Roche has joined them.

What is certain is that rapid testing will be made possible globally in the coming months, which is important for the tourism sector.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 20th of April, 2020, all citizens who have had their blood drawn since Wednesday for various health check ups unrelated to coronavirus (COVID-19) are potential candidates for conducting a major study to find out just how deeply coronavirus has entered the population, according to a report from Jutarnji list.

''The first phase will see the random selection of 1,100 blood samples, collected from hospital laboratories, health centres and public health institutes from across the country. Croatian labs have been keeping hold of blood samples since Wednesday. The collection will take about ten days, and by then we expect 1100 ELISA tests to arrive, which will determine how many people have developed antibodies, that is, how many, without knowing it, were in contact with the virus,'' Krunoslav Capak, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, whose facility will be carrying out the testing, explained.

''At this stage, these will be ''anonymous'' samples, that is, only the gender of the person, their age and whether or not he or she is suffering from a disease or is completely healthy will be known. The person's first name doesn't matter to us. What we want to do is see how many people actually have had the virus asymptomatically. We chose such samples because we consider them to be the most relevant in terms of representing the population. Some countries have opted to use the blood of voluntary blood donors, but we believe that we wouldn't get a quality picture because most blood donors are healthy, middle-aged men,'' said Capak.

Considering the fact that this coronavirus is new and we're still in the research phase, this kind of study is being done for two reasons. The first reason is, as Capak explained, to see how many asymptomatic cases we have, that is, how many people have contracted the new coronavirus without even knowing it. The other reason is to see how many antibodies have, as such, been developed.

Specifically, it will be possible to monitor how long immunity to the disease lasts over time, which is something that is currently unknown and being questioned.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for all you need to know about coronavirus in Croatia.