ZAGREB, 15 Dec 2021 - So far, eight cases of the infection with the omicron variant of coronavirus have been confirmed in Croatia, and four have been in Zagreb and another four in Split, Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Wednesday.

Roughly 200 samples have been sent to the  European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for sequencing, and we will soon get information whether there are more and more cases of the infection with the latest variant of the virus, Beroš said.

He said that since 16 November, when the COVID certificate mandate was introduced in the public sector, 681,309 tests have been conducted for that purpose and have revealed that 9,814 asymptomatic persons have caught coronavirus. Placing them in self-isolation has prevented the further spread of the virus, Beroš explained.

Interior Minister Davor Božinović said that he had not been informed whether today's protest of opponents of COVID certificates and vaccines in St. Mark's Square had been organized in line with the relevant legislation.

Our position is that protests against strict rules in Croatia miss the point as Croatia has balanced and less restrictive anti-epidemic rules in comparison to other EU member-states, Božinović said.

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ZAGREB, 15 Dec 2021 - Several dozens gathered in St. Mark's Square in Zagreb on Wednesday morning to rally against COVID vaccines and the draft amendments of the Contagious Diseases Act, which the Croatian parliament is supposed to adopt later in the day.

The protesters rallied outside the government and the parliament to express their opposition against the vaccines against coronavirus.

One of the protesters shouted that she had not got vaccinated against that COVID disease and that she would not allow the immunization of her child with that experimental vaccine.

She also told media outlets and reporters not to label them anti-vaxxers.

"We are not rabbits and we do not want an experimental vaccine. We are here to protest against that," the protester shouted and her message was applauded by other demonstrators.

One in the crowd accused media outlets of twisting their messages.

During the peaceful protest, some of the demonstrators held hands and started praying.

They also had posters with messages appealing to the president to request the constitutionality of the amended law.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

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ZAGREB, 15 Dec 2021 - In the last 24 hours, the COVID disease has taken 57 lives in Croatia, raising the death toll to 11,779, and there have been 4,671 new cases of the infection, Croatia's authorities reported on Wednesday.

Currently, there are 23,709 infected people throughout Croatia, and of them 2,256 are receiving hospital treatment, including 306 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection with the novel virus in the country on 25 February 2020, 662,397 people have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, and of them, 626,909 have recovered, including 2,301 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Under the vaccine rollout plan, 55.01% of the total population have tog vaccinated to date, and 60.58% of adults have fully been vaccinated.

8 omicron cases so far

So far, eight cases of the infection with the omicron variant of coronavirus have been confirmed in Croatia, and four have been in Zagreb and another four in Split, Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Wednesday.

Roughly 200 samples have been sent to the  European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for sequencing, and we will soon get information whether there are more and more cases of the infection with the latest variant of the virus, Beroš said.

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ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Croatia has registered 3,071 new coronavirus cases and 56 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Tuesday.

Currently, there are 21,396 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,253 infected persons receiving hospital treatment, 315 of whom are on ventilators, and 18,937 people are self-isolating.

Compared with last Tuesday, the number of new cases decreased by 191 and the number of deaths fell by four cases.

To date, 657,726 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,722 have died and 624,608 have recovered, including 3,200 in the last 24 hours.

As of Monday, 4,406,837 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 54.94 percent of the total population, or 65.51 percent of the adult population, having been vaccinated.  A total of 2,229,626 people have received at least one dose and 2,046,615 have been fully vaccinated, which is 60.33 percent of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - A total of 48,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in Croatia on Monday for vaccination of children aged 5-11 and will be distributed to local public health institutions in the coming days.

"Children aged 5-11 will receive the vaccine in two doses, like adults, but the vaccine for children contains a third of the dose for adults," said the deputy director of the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ), Ivana Pavić Šimetin.

Vaccination is recommended especially for immunocompromised children.

Local public health institutes will organize vaccination through pediatric clinics and schools and general medical practitioners.

About 6,400 children aged 12-14 (5.18%) and about 55,000 young people aged 15-19 have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to date.

The HZJZ says that vaccinated children do not need a booster dose, except those immunocompromised who are given an additional dose already a month after the first two doses.

The Pfizer vaccine has been approved for children aged 5-11.

Children infected with COVID-19 most often have mild clinical symptoms or have no symptoms at all. Serious cases that require hospitalization and intensive care are very rare.

No vaccine has been registered so far for children aged below 5, so children in that age group cannot be vaccinated.

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ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - People who think that the risk of COVID-19 is small are the most reluctant to get vaccinated, a study approved for publication in the Croatian Medical Journal shows.

The study, written by sociologists Dragan Bagić from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Adrijana Šuljok and Branko Ančić from the Institute for Social Research, is part of a project by the Croatian Science Foundation called "Resilience of Croatian society against the COVID-19 pandemic", the Jutarnji List daily wrote on Monday.

The purpose of the study was to establish who refuses to get vaccinated and why, and it was conducted on a sample of 765 respondents. It showed that over a third of the respondents hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The most frequent reason given is that the vaccine is not safe enough or effective. Some of the respondents said they prefer natural immunity, i.e. recovering from the disease over vaccination, while some of the hesitant respondents also expressed mistrust of vaccines in general.

The study showed that young respondents, women, people with lower educational qualifications, and those living in small towns are more inclined to hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated. Foreign studies have also shown similar findings.

"These are the groups that the vaccination campaign should focus on," Šuljok was quoted as saying. "It should be borne in mind that some of these people cannot be influenced and are less likely to change their opinion. Our study has also shown that respondents who expressed mistrust of science are more inclined to hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated," she added.

Šuljok said that the term "anti-vaxxers", used to denote the people who hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, is not appropriate because some of them are mistrustful of vaccines in general.

"By labeling all people, including those who are primarily afraid of the COVID-19 vaccine because it is new and has been developed quickly, as anti-vaxxers we are actually pushing them towards the group of real anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, which might have negative consequences through increased opposition to 'regular' vaccines," Šuljok said.

She said that the public health campaign has failed to get the message across to a section of the population about the danger of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and that this was partly due to conflicting messages from the government advisory council and the predominant public narrative that mostly elderly people and serious patients get seriously ill.

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ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - Croatia has registered 453 new coronavirus cases and 47 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus crisis response team reported on Monday.

Currently, there are 21,581 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,300 infected people receiving hospital treatment, including 326 who are on ventilators, and 20,029 persons are self-isolating.

To date, 654,655 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,666 have died and 621,408 have recovered, including 3,926 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 3,580,821 people have so far been tested for the new virus, including 2,528 in the last 24 hours.

As of Sunday, 4,386,603 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 54.89 percent of the total population, or 65.42 percent of the adult population, having been vaccinated. A total of 2,227,358 people have received at least one dose and 2,039,788 have been fully vaccinated, which is 60.13 percent of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 12 Dec 2021 - In the last  24 hours, there have been 2,339 new cases of the infection with coronavirus, and another 45 COVID patients have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 11,619, Croatia's authorities said on Sunday. 

There are currently 25,101 active cases, and of the 2,293 are hospitalized patients, including 330 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registration of the infection with the novel virus on 25 February 2020, 654,202 persons have caught the virus, and of the 617,482 have recovered from the disease, including 3,676 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Croatia has to date conducted roughly 3.58 million tests, including 7,810 in the last 24 hours when the positivity rate was 30%.

Since the start of the implementation of the vaccine rollout plan, 54.87% of the total population has got vaccinated. As many as 60.07% of adults have fully been vaccinated.

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ZAGREB, 11 Dec, 2021 - Croatia has registered 3,860 new coronavirus cases and 58 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Saturday.

The number of active cases stands at 26,483 and among them 2,290 infected persons are receiving hospital treatment, including 323 who are on ventilators.

A total of 23,895 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 651,863 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,574 have died.

A total of 613,806 people have recovered, including 4,143 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 3,570,483 people have tested for the new virus, of whom 11,161 in the last 24 hours.

54.81% of total population vaccinated

As of Friday, 4,361,237 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 54.81 per cent of the total population, or 65.36 per cent of the adult population, having been vaccinated.

A total of 2,224,323 people have received at least one dose and 2,029,476 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 59.84 per cent of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 8 Dec, 2021 - Croatia has registered 4,751 new coronavirus cases and 54 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Wednesday morning.

The number of active cases stands at 27,221 and among them are 2,412 infected persons receiving hospital treatment, including 320 who are on ventilators. A total of 22,342 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 639,778 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,383 have died and 601,174 have recovered, including 2,583 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 3,535,311 people have tested for the new virus, of whom 12,790 in the last 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, 4,289,179 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 54.56 per cent of the total population, or 65.07 per cent of the adult population, having been vaccinated. A total of 2,214,222 people have received at least one dose and 1,998,930 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 58.97 per cent of the adult population.

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