ZAGREB, 29 Oct 2021 - The rising interest in vaccination is encouraging as over 10,000 citizens have received the first shot in two days, the government said on Friday, adding that the number of those who have received a booster shot it also rising.

The booster shoot is recommended for everyone who was vaccinated six months ago or more as well as for senior citizens and immunocompromised persons, government spokesman Marko Milić tweeted.

Yesterday 13,292 COVID-19 shots were administered.

To date 56.92% of the entire population, including 56.21% of adults, has received the first shot.

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ZAGREB, 21 Oct 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš on Thursday criticized comments by a member of the government's Scientific Council, Gordan Lauc, related to vaccination, saying that Council members should send a clear message and be aware that their opinions could be harmful.

Beroš added, however, that Lauc has the right to his own opinion.

"It is bad when everyone has the same opinion. That would show that we made a mistake somewhere. But I am critical of what is made public. I appeal for that to not be the case and that everyone who participates in the Scientific Council be aware that by presenting their opinion on social networks they could be doing harm," Beroš told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

He underscored that that is why he personally appealed to members of the Council to send clear messages and not to confuse citizens.

Commenting on Lauc's post on Facebook that "the consensus of the Scientific Council is that vaccines are a poor protection against infection," Beroš said that everyone has the right to their own opinion but the common stance after the Council's meetings, which is a voluntary advisory body for the government, is made by a government representative.

Asked if Lauc would be ousted from the Council, Beroš said that Lauc is responsible for his own opinions but that he believes "individuals will realize that expressing their opinions is damaging and that that will change."

First step in reform is to combine public procurement

Beroš also spoke about the proposed reform of the health system which the ministry has sent to interested institutions for their ideas and proposals.

He announced that as part of the reform, regardless of amendments to the law on healthcare, the first step will be to combine public procurement in health institutions.

"A precondition to combine public procurement is their ownership structure because the ministry and state do not have the option to impose any obligation on county hospitals to join in combined public procurement. Combined public procurement is the first step we will deal with and certain steps have already been taken in that regard," he said, adding that the results would quickly be visible.

"Whether it will be necessary to centralize county institutions or not is still a matter of dispute. We will see what the final draft decision will be after consultations," he said.

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ZAGREB, 18 Oct 2021- The head of the national COVID-19 crisis management team, Davor Božinović, said on Monday, ahead of the start of the administration of the third vaccine dose, that vaccination was the best prevention against serious illness and hospitalization.

"We can protect ourselves from the most serious illness, individually and as a community, if we accept the fact that science, not just in this epidemic but in previous ones too, has helped humankind to survive," he told the press in Našice.

He added that "those who don't trust science first of all harm themselves, and then the community."

He said the recent rise in new cases meant a rise in hospitalizations and that vaccination was the proper defense against that.

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ZAGREB, 23 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 10,106 coronavirus tests, and 13.6% of them, or 1,373, have turned out to be positive, and ten more COVID patients have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 8,554, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

There are now 8,615 active cases, and 694 of them are receiving hospital treatment, including 89 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection with the novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, the country has conducted over 2.76 million tests which have shown that 396,470 people have caught the virus, and of them, 379,301 have recovered, including 1,132 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, 3,388,015 vaccines have been administered. As many as 1,793,806 people have received at least one shot, and of them, 1,682,093 have fully been vaccinated (49.82% of the adult population).

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ZAGREB, 20 Sept 2021 - In the past 24 hours 264 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

There are 7,518 active cases and 695 hospitalized patients, including 85 on ventilators.

Croatia has registered 392,248 coronavirus cases to date, including 8,514 deaths and 376,216 recoveries, of which 1,018 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 20,966 persons are self-isolating.

To date, 2,730,993 persons have been tested for the virus, including 3,863 in the past 24 hours, and 43.93% of the population has been vaccinated, including 52.73% of adults, of whom 49.50% fully.

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.

ZAGREB, 16 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 10,743 coronavirus tests, and 12.8%, that is 1,369, have returned positive, and nine patients have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 8,472, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

There are currently 7,643 active cases, including 628 hospitalized patients, and of them, 72 are placed on ventilators. Also, 17,051 are self-isolating.

Since the first registered case of the infection with this novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020,  nearly 2.7 million tests have been conducted, showing that 388,260 people have caught the virus, and of the 372,145 have recovered, including 754 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Since the start of the vaccine rollout in the country, 43.64% of the total population, or 52.38% of the adult population have got vaccinated.

The statistics show that 49.17% of the adult population has been fully vaccinated.

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.

ZAGREB, 13 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 3,871 coronavirus tests, and 167 have returned positive (4.3%), the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Monday.

There are currently 5,532 active cases, and 592 are hospitalized patients including 59 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, seven patients infected with coronavirus have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 8,447.

Since the first registered case of the infection with this novel virus in Croatia, 384,082 people have caught the virus, and of them, 370,103 have recovered, including 751 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, 43.37% of the total population, or 52.07% of the adult population have got vaccinated.

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.

ZAGREB, 9 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, 9,987 coronavirus tests have been performed in Croatia and of them, 941 (9.4%) have returned positive, while the COVID-19-related death toll has risen by 10 to 8,405, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

There are currently 5,335 active cases and, among them, 554 are receiving hospital treatment, including 58 patients on ventilators.

Since its first registered case of the coronavirus infection on 25 February 2020, Croatia has tested 2,628,116 people. The country has registered 380,904 positive cases and 367,164 recoveries, of which 605 in the past 24 hours.

So far, 43.13% of the total population, or 51.79% of adults, have been vaccinated. The share of the fully vaccinated adult population is 48.59%.

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.