ZAGREB, 15 February (Hina) - Epidemiologist Bernard Kaić, an official of the Public Health Institution (HZJZ), said on Monday that the list of people who have been vaccinated against COVID was subject to medical confidentiality.

"With regard to the list of vaccinated people that is being mentioned - those are medical records and therefore confidential. The media will never get that list because it contains information such as the diseases a particular patient may have similarly to the way the media cannot access other registers of diseases that need to have their confidentiality protected if we want the health system to function and if we want the people to trust the system," Kaić told a press conference held by the COVID crisis response team.

The epidemiologist explains that the vaccination rollout plan is being implemented in three stages that overlap and vaccination tables are often incorrectly presented, because they are not the list of priority groups for administration of shots.

The priority categories include people who have an increased risk of complications and doctors need to apply their expertise to determine who has priority, said Kaić, calling on the coordinating body of family doctors to prepare guidelines for doctors for administering jabs to their patients.

With regard to further deliveries of vaccines, Kaić said that the numbers sound optimistic "unless they trick us again."

Until now 150,000 doses have been distributed throughout the country, and by the end of February we expect another 200,000 doses and another 400,000 in March. There is no written information regarding deliveries after that.

Kaić reiterated that reporters and jurists cannot interpret the vaccination plan and people with increased risk of complications or death due to diseases they suffer from have priority. "We do not consider that jumping the queue. Jumping the queue means young, healthy people who get vaccinated just because they think they are more important than others," said Kaić.

There are medical staff and people who are not in aged care facilities but because of their health, deserve to be vaccinated as do people with chronic diseases and the elderly, he added.

In Croatia, 1.7 million residents old or patients with comorbidities

The head of the Fran Mihaljević hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotić said that things should not be pushed to absurdity.

In our country there are about 1.7 million people in old-age cohorts or who are patients with comorbidities. All of them have different health conditions, diagnoses and are at different stages of their treatment, and it is their physicians who can assess who need to be vaccinated, Markotić said.

For the latest coronavirus news from Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

ZAGREB, 15 February, 2021 - In the past 24 hours there have been 68 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 related deaths in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Monday.

There are currently 2,002 active cases of the disease, including 951 hospitalised patients, 86 of whom are on ventilators.

A total of 11,694 people are in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the infection was identified in the country, there have been 237,725 registered cases of coronavirus infection and 5,339 people have died as a result.

A total of 230,384 people have recovered, including 343 in the past 24 hours.

To date, a total of 1,268,323 tests have been conducted, of which 2,134 in the past 24 hours.

For the latest news about coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

February 15, 2021 - Spokesman of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Croatia, Matvey Sidorov, spoke about the possibility of the Sputnik V vaccine in Croatia. 

The spokesman of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Croatia, Matvey Sidorov, was a guest of New Day on N1. He spoke about the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the possible delivery of that vaccine to Croatia.

Sidorov did not want to talk about the meeting between Prime Minister Plenković and the Russian ambassador before the government announced them.

"Sputnik V was on the table, and the Russian ambassador conveyed good intentions. We spoke about possibilities and details," he said.

He also cited the example of a European Union member state that already uses the Sputnik V vaccine.

"We have such an example; it is Hungary. An agreement was concluded on January 22, and on February 1, the vaccine arrived in Hungary," Sidorov said.

The number of vaccines is a complex and logistical issue, Sidorov said, stating that it is a matter that the appropriate people in the departments could solve.

“Palestine got the vaccine in three weeks, but it was through Israel. Two weeks is the normal approximate speed of delivery, but this should be resolved between the Russian manufacturer and the appropriate body in the Republic of Croatia according to your vaccination plan," said Sidorov.

He reiterated that they are always ready to help.

"We will not use it as a geopolitical benefit. We want to vaccinate the whole world as soon as possible. We also consider an agreement on the production of Russian vaccines in other countries possible," Sidorov added.

Sidorov noted that Russia had not set any conditions on the table for importing vaccines and thinks that there will be no such conditions.

Sidorov said 2.5 million citizens were vaccinated in Russia last week, and now there are just about 3 million people.

“Mass free vaccinations started on January 18. There are several mobile centers in Moscow and other major cities. Every citizen of Russia or foreign citizen who has a residence in Russia can be vaccinated," he explained.

No one has yet been vaccinated at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Zagreb.

"It would take at least three weeks to go to Russia. That is why we are waiting for Sputnik V in Croatia. We cannot be vaccinated on the territory of the Republic of Croatia without the appropriate permits from state bodies," Sidorov said.

He recalled a study in the medical journal The Lancet that reported that the Sputnik V vaccine's effectiveness was 91.8 percent.

“We find it quite effective, at the level of any other vaccine in the world. We are confident about this vaccine," Sidorov said.

Asked why the Russian vaccine has not yet been approved in the European Union, he replied: “I can't say. We have sent a request to the European Medicines Agency, and we are waiting for an official response from them. We are ready for that. I don't really know why it's not going in that direction."

The number of vaccine doses delivered would depend entirely on the relevant bodies' ideas and plans in Croatia.

"As we agree, so it will be. I do not see any limit on the number of doses. I don't see any obstacles to a large number of doses," said Sidorov.

He once again noted that the quantity would depend on Croatia's official requirements.

"We are always ready for dialogue. Our embassy is ready to do it as soon as possible and deliver it," he concluded.

Illustration by Little Shiva

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ZAGREB, 15 February, 2021 - Epidemiologist Branko Kolarić has said that 2% of Croatia's population has been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far and that the number of vaccinations would have been three times higher had the preordered amounts of vaccine been delivered on time. 

"We have vaccinated around 2% of the population, and the number of those vaccinated would have been three times higher had we received the vaccine on time," Kolarić, who is a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Council, told the N1 broadcaster on Monday.

He dismissed claims that around 50% of the population had contracted the disease.

"Many other parameters are taken into account and the percentage of (those who have contracted the virus) is much lower, between 10 and 20% or 25% at the most," he said.

Asked about out-of-order vaccination, he said that it was not good but warned against making registers of vaccinated people public.

Kolarić also noted that one should not rush with possible new relaxation of current epidemiological restrictions, noting that most members of the government's Scientific Advisory Council were agreed on that.

Illustration by Little Shiva

For the latest news about coronavirus in Croatia, visit the dedicated TCN section.

February the 15th, 2021 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has dealt a very heavy blow to the aviation industry, and airports across Europe have suffered in a way we could never have previously imagined might occur. Zagreb International Airport is no exception.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, air transport continues to unfortunately be one of the biggest losers in the coronavirus crisis, as evidenced by the daily news reports of losses and government "injections" for airlines and airports alike. The latest Eurostat data for January shows that the leading European airports recorded a decrease in the number of passengers and air operations by more than 80%, and Croatia's Zagreb International Airport is very much within this framework.

In January this year, the largest drop in the number of commercial flights in the EU was recorded at Germany's usually very busy Munich Airport, by as much as 25,400 flights, which represents a concerning drop of 85 percent.

Paris CDG had 23,500 fewer flights, down 63 percet, and within that are Amsterdam and Frankfurt with 23,100 fewer flights and a drop of 61 percent and 64 percent respectively. Madrid dropped by 22,900 flights and Barcelona by 17,700. This is followed by Rome with 16,400 fewer flights, Vienna with 15,800, Copenhagen with 14,900 and Düsseldorf with 12,800.

Zagreb International Airport had 38,036 passengers in January, compared to 203,033 in the same month last year, down a massive 81 percent. In terms of the number of air operations, Zagreb International Airport had a decline of 55 percent given that last month there were 1403 commercial flights compared to 3133 in the same month last year.

Eurostat points out that the first results of the coronavirus pandemic were recorded back at what was then the beginning of things going dramatically wrong for most European countries, namely in March 2020, when the number of commercial flights to the European Union, including passenger, cargo and postal air transport, fell by 44 percent compared to March 2019. The largest drop in traffic was recorded in April 2020, when only nine percent of traffic from the same month a year earlier actually operated, and in May it improved by a mere one percent, despite being one month closer to summer.

During the warmer summer months which are known for tourism, there was a partial recovery and in July there was a decline of 64 percent when compared to the same month back in 2019, and in August the decline was 53 percent, only to rise again in September to 59 percent, in October to 62 percent and in November and December to 68 percent and 67 percent respectively.

There has been no recovery to speak of yet this year because the statistics show a decrease in traffic at the EU level by 68 percent compared to January 2020. During the month of January, there were 156,867 commercial flights in the EU, with Germany receiving 36,932 and France 36,313 flights.

Spain had 30,157, Italy 19,986, and the Netherlands 16,997 takeoffs and landings in January. For Croatia, Eurostat records 1448 flights, which means that there were only 45 flights at all other Croatian airports except Zagreb International Airport, which is truly astonishing.

At the EU level, Slovenia had the fewest flights in January, standing at just 402. The decline in total air traffic last year was recorded by the Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), whose data shows that 675,000 passengers were transported by air last year, and 2.27 million were transported in the same way the year before, which is drop greater than 70 percent in total.

In terms of cargo, there is not so much difference because last year a total of 1461 tonnes of cargo was transported compared to 2133 tonnes in the year before. Last year, a total of 48.7 million passengers were transported by road, rail, sea and air to Croatia, which is a decrease of 42.1 percenr when compared to 2019.

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ZAGREB, 14 February, 2021 -The Jutarnji List daily newspaper reported on Sunday that 71,325 doses of COVID vaccines would be delivered to Croatia next week.

According to the head of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, 18,525 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BionTech can be expected in the country on Monday, while on Tuesday, a shipment of 16,800 Moderna vaccine and another 36,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are due to arrive.

The daily newspaper highlights the fact that more than 70,000 Croats can be inoculated against coronavirus in a week, which is more than the number of inoculated citizens in the whole of January.

The acceleration of the implementation of the vaccination rollout plan means that some kind of mass inoculation centres should be set up in cities.

The daily says that this is good news after some delays in the delivery of vaccines throughout the European Union.

For the latest news about coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section. 

ZAGREB, 14 February, 2021 - The head of the Croatian Association of General Practitioners (KoHOM), Nataša Ban Toskić, said on Saturday that it was only two days ago that GPs in Zagreb received the government document determining priority groups for vaccination against COVID-19.

"We knew that this second group includes a wide group of people aged 65 years and over and chronic patients, but we learned about the criteria only two days ago. Only a few county public health institutes received this document immediately, while others received it only two days ago," Ban Toskić told N1 television while speaking about the vaccination of priority groups.

She noted that age was the sole criterion, adding that this put GPs "in a dreadful position".

"Each of us has at least 100 patients older than 80 years. The criteria were set by a body that does not have representatives of family doctors. When there are no ideas or concrete solutions, the easiest thing to do is to say that family doctors will decide because they know best, which is not so," Ban Toskić said.

She said that people are swamped with information while they need "concrete, clear and logical" solutions.

"We are in a dreadful situation in which we have to choose who to vaccinate and protect. There is no way for anyone to understand why someone was vaccinated before them, why their neighbour was vaccinated before they were. ... It is unbelievable that none of the appeals from family doctors met with sympathy and response," Ban Toskić said.

The best solution, according to KoHOM, would be for patients to sign up for vaccination via a digital platform or a call centre so that they can be notified when and where they will be inoculated. "All seriously ill persons who have a priority because of their condition could be vaccinated directly as recommended by epidemiologists," she said.

For more on coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section. 

ZAGREB, 14 February, 2021 - The Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) has provided all stakeholders in the COVID-19 vaccination programme with additional detailed instructions on the preparation, organisation and implementation of vaccination in accordance with the national vaccination plan.

In a statement issued on its website on Saturday, the HZJZ said that the purpose of the additional instructions was to avoid "any ambiguities, irregularities, inconsistencies or misuse" regarding the vaccination process following several recent cases that "cast a shadow" on the efficiency of the Croatian public health system in combating the coronavirus pandemic.

The HZJZ said that the statement was prompted by increasing queries from the public and media about the vaccination programme, explaining the circumstances in which it is justified to vaccinate people who do not belong to priority groups.

It said that under the national vaccination plan the first priority group includes health workers and care home residents and staff, while the vaccination of elderly people and people with chronic diseases is envisaged for the second phase.

The main goal in the fight against COVID-19 is to inoculate risk groups as soon as possible and then all people aged 18 and over. "We should do all we can to reduce or avoid overlapping taking into account the fact that sometimes it is more important to vaccinate high-risk persons from the second priority group than young and healthy persons from the first priority group," the HZJZ said.

The HZJZ noted that all adult citizens are entitled to free vaccination and that stakeholders in the vaccination process are doing their best to obtain sufficient quantities of vaccine and ensure efficient health care. It said it expects over 600,000 doses of vaccine by the end of March.

It also mentioned cases when people scheduled for vaccination do not show up or cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. In such situations it is reasonable and justifiable, both economically and from the point of view of health care, to vaccinate people who do not belong to any of the priority groups, the HZJZ said. "Discarding vaccines in such situations constitutes irreparable damage."

You can visit the HZJZ site here.

For more on coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

February the 13th, 2021 - Want to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus but don't fall into a coronavirus risk group? Here's how you can manage to get your hands on one of the current vaccinations available in Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, those who don't yet fall into what are being classified as priority or coronavirus risk groups need to know the following:

1. For vaccination against COVID-19, you can state your wish to be vaccinated and apply to your GP to be seen, or if that isn't possible, you can do the same the competent county public health institute responsible for the area you live in.

2. If you aren't able to be vaccinated in your place of usual residence, or from your GP, you can contact the competent county public health institute in the place of your current residence for vaccination.

nge3. In Croatia, you can get vaccinated against COVID-19 free of charge, regardless of the type of health insurance you have, or even if you for whatever reason don't have it.

4. Due to the limited quantities of vaccines available, vaccination is currently being carried out according to each defined coronavirus risk group, which are often called priority groups, in accordance with the National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19. The start of vaccination of persons from certain coronavirus risk groups depends on the availability of vaccines at any given time, the response to vaccination, but also the number of persons belonging to these priority groups.

The plan has been and continues to be to first vaccinate employees and users of homes for the elderly (and other institutions for the provision of accommodation within the social welfare system) and healthcare workers, then (conditionally speaking, in the second phase of vaccination) all persons over 65 and all persons with chronic diseases, independent of their age, and finally (conditionally speaking, the third phase) the entire population.

5. Before receiving your coronavirus vaccination, your doctor will ask you for the necessary information - it is necessary to make it clear if you have ever had any severe allergic reactions or severe acute infection with an accompanying high body temperature. According to the information provided, the doctor will then decide whether you can be vaccinated with the currently available vaccine or whether the vaccination should be postponed until a more suitable one is made available.

6. People are advised to stick to the appointments they succeed in making with their doctors when it comes to vaccination.

The Croatian Institute of Public Health confirmed for Dnevnik.hr that it currently isn't known when the vaccination of citizens who don't belong to either priority groups or a coronavirus risk group will begin at all.

"Unfortunately, we can't say when the vaccine will start arriving in large enough quantities to start vaccinating that part of the population,'' they stated, also confirming that the vaccination of the majority of the population is expected by the end of autumn this year.

“A digital vaccination ordering platform is being prepared, which should be operational by the end of the week. The launch of the platform will be made public, and it is expected to be linked to county platforms. Through it, people will be informed about the date and place of vaccination,'' they stated from the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

The platform should be available at this web address, but it is not operational today.

In the meantime, Medjimurje County was the first to present its platform for applying for vaccination. What other counties will do and how is not yet known.

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ZAGREB, 13 February, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 379 new coronavirus cases and 17 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID response team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases is 2,451, including 955 hospitalised patients, 89 of whom are on ventilators, while 13,097 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the new coronavirus was registered in Croatia, 237,459 people have been infected, 5,299 who have died, and 229,709 who have recovered, including 382 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,260,970 people have been tested for the virus, including 5,184 in the past 24 hours.