ZAGREB, 27 January 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 857 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 31 deaths linked to COVID-19, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases now stands at 3,050. There are 1,381 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, 135 of whom are on ventilators.

Currently, 14,969 people are self-isolating.

To date, 1,169,837 people have been tested, including 7,173 in the last 24 hours.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case, 230,359 people have contracted the novel virus, 4,913 of whom have died.

A total of 222,396 people have recovered, including 286 over the past 24 hours.

January the 27th, 2021 - Good news has arrived from Pfizer following a recent disappointing announcement that Croatian vaccination process, as well as the vaccination processes of other EU countries, couldn't continue at the previously planned rate.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, due to the unplanned slower delivery of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, the HQ announced a few days ago that they could not continue vaccination at the same rate in the next few weeks as planned, which attracted the general frustration and displeasure of the EU.

Owing to joint pressure from EU member states as well as from Brussels itself following the previously announced reduction in deliveries and thus non-compliance with the signed contract, Pfizer changed its story yesterday.

“Because of the urgent need to vaccinate more people, we've explored innovative ways in which we can increase the number of doses we can deliver this year and now believe we can potentially deliver approximately 2 billion doses by the end of 2021,” Pfizer said, which is very encouraging indeed for the Croatian vaccination process.

In order to achieve that goal, certain modifications of production processes are now urgently needed. As a result, the Puurs plant in Belgium will experience a temporary reduction in the number of doses delivered to the rest of the EU. According to their information, from the original 1.3 billion doses, they will now produce at least two billion this year.

"This week we will return to the original schedule of deliveries to the European Union, including Croatia, while the increased deliveries will start on February the 15th. Thus, we will fully fulfill the agreement and deliver the agreed quantities of vaccines in the first quarter of 2021, while they will be significantly higher in the second quarter,'' Pfizer told Vecernji list.

The Croatian Institute of Public Health's comments on Pfizer's announced increased vaccine supply

The Croatian Institute of Public Health explained what exactly this means for the Croatian vaccination process.

“Pfizer has so far delivered 17,550 doses per week which would be equal to 18 boxes. So, 18 boxes would be arriving on a weekly basis, from January the 25th to February the 15th, a reduction of 14 boxes in total in those three weeks is planned.

On February the 15th, Croatia should receive 19 boxes, and on February the 22nd, it will receive 20, so only three more boxes.

After the 15th and the 22nd of February, Croatia should return to its regular delivery schedule and receive an extra 3 boxes, and we will know in time what the delivery will look like for the month of March and whether there will be certain compensations,'' said the Croatian Institute of Public Health for N1.

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ZAGREB, 26 January, 2021 - The director of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, said on Tuesday that it was not likely that Croatia would get the quantities of coronavirus vaccine promised to it, stressing that although the EU had done all it could to ensure a fair distribution of vaccines based on the population size, it seemed that this would not materialise.

"Pfizer has reduced the number of dozes for us in the next three shipments. What we will receive within the next two weeks has been reduced by 14 boxes, or 975 doses in total. We have received 11 boxes of vaccine fewer, which is disappointing and makes the implementation of the vaccination plan difficult. All the quantities that we now have we are keeping for second shots," Capak said in an interview with the HTV public television service in the evening.

 "Moderna has also postponed its shipment for a week. The 4,800 doses we should have already received will be delivered on Sunday," Capak said.

He said that the EU had invested a lot of money in AstraZeneca, which should have started delivering its vaccine in December, but is now expected to register it on 29 January. "The EU is urging them to start their deliveries sooner and to honour the agreement. We hope that the situation will improve, but it is not likely that we will get the doses that were promised to us."

Capak said he did not know how much vaccine rich countries had bought.

"The system that we believed in is collapsing. The EU did all it could to ensure a fair distribution based on the population size, but it seems that this will not materialise. Countries that negotiated on their own and paid more, obviously got more than we did," he said.

Capak said that all patients in Croatia would get their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on time. As for Moderna, he said it was unlikely that it would increase its vaccine deliveries in February and that all hopes were now pinned on AstraZeneca. "In that case we could vaccinate elderly people and chronic patients by the end of February, but we would need considerable quantities of vaccine because there are at least 600-700,000 such people in Croatia," he said.

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January the 26th, 2021 - Will Croatian establishment owners end up taking to the streets to protest the ongoing measures banning their work, or will they opt for a situation in which everyone opens and begins working again despite what the National Civil Protection Headquarters say?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian establishment owners who are banned from working have stated that they are very much ready to start working again as soon as possible, claiming that people are now running out of energy, bars are having to permanently close every single day and that as a sector they are thinking about the possibility of taking to the streets in protest or all simply re-opening in groups on the same day.

Marija Bubas, Assistant Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Dino Kozlevac, Chief of Staff of the Istria County, Ivan Vestic, President of the Athletics Federation, and Drazen Biljan, a Croatian establishment owner, all said their piece recently for an HRT programme.

The topics included easing the current strict anti-epidemic measures and Croatia's now favourable epidemiological situation.

In the introductory part of the show, Bubas said that the Croatian epidemiological situation is only getting better, but it isn't what you'd call great yet. She believes that just as measures should be introduced gradually, they should also be gradually relaxed in the same manner, and she doesn't know what the first thing to be eased up will be because it is still being very carefully considered.

As for the measures, she said it's difficult to satisfy everyone, but that public health always comes first. She added that economic activities, education, and also the public health interest in not putting pressure on the healthcare system must be preserved as much as possible and that healthcare services must be provided to all those who need it, when they need it.

Asked in which segment the anti-epidemic measures will be eased first, she said it's difficult to choose. She believes that a new set of measures will be introduced, but she has stated that she doesn't know which sector will be the first to breathe a sigh of relief.

Biljan believes that all sectors in the hospitality industry should be equalised, but that ''serving coffee to go is a mere few crumbs in terms of their survival". They asked for the possibility of deliveries, but that makes up less than 3 percent of the income of such facilities, which will not help them in almost anything. He talked about the consequences of lockdown, saying that Croatian establishment owners are now on the floor and have no one to pick them up and help them at all.

It was announced that children could go to sport training again and that gyms would be re-opened, Vestic said that these measures leave long-term consequences - sport clubs have been losing children for months now. After the first lockdown, it took six months for his club to have the same number of members and for the children to actually return. He believes that some sportsclubs shouldn't have been closed - especially those which take place outdoors and where children aren't in direct physical contact.

Many clubs are complaining about unequal treatment. Vestic said the measures were selective, accusing them of even involving lobbying. The head of Istria's Civil Protection Headquarters also demanded that gyms and sport clubs be opened.

Kozlevac asked for the work of gyms and sport clubs to be allowed, he is satisfied with the announcement that this will happen, but he says that they are being very careful and monitoring the epidemiological situation. He said that the number of patients in Istria County had been falling for five entire weeks and that they could now start easing the measures. They estimated, he added, that sport centres and individual sports can now be allowed. He expects the profession to find a solution and that the measure will be adopted from February the 1st, when the review is due.

Students in Istria County are still taking their classes online and this decision is also valid until the end of January. They're assessing the situation and will decide how to proceed in the coming days. They don't want to jeopardise the good epidemiological situation and believe that the measures must be gradually relaxed.

A Croatian establishment owner: We're now considering a group opening

When asked how long the Croatian establishment owners and their businesses such as cafes can last in these harsh and restrictive times, Biljan says that they're now finished and that they want to start working as soon as possible. According to official data, 1,098 Croatian cafes have been closed down since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. A long return of guests awaits them, he said. They are skeptical and think that it will take a long time for them to return to anywhere close to normal. All Croatian establishment owners should, Biljan said, be permitted to open their doors again at the same time, it isn't good to divide them up.

"We're not an island within Europe, we have to monitor the situation in the area," said Bubas. She added that the experiences of other countries should also be looked at.

"Sport has suffered more than you think," said Vestic. He warned of illogicalities regarding the measures in force.

Protests by Croatian establishment owners under the slogan "I will open" have been going on for days in nearby Italy, and Biljan says that here in Croatia, business owners are also very close to that because they have had enough and are now more than ready to work.

"We've fully respected the measures agreed with the Civil Protection Headquarters. I think the vast majority of restaurants are a safe place for guests. We're here to respect the measures to the maximum, in agreement with the Headquarters. We're ready to start working as soon as possible, people are running out of energy, tills are empty, bars are closing down every day and we're thinking about the possibility of going out onto the streets or organising a group opening, where we all open again on the same day,'' warned Biljan.

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January the 26th, 2021 - Just how has the Croatian healthcare system coped under the heavy strain of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when compared to other countries in the area?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak wries, when compared to other countries in the Mediterranean and Central Europe, the Croatian healthcare system has relatively good results in the quality of staff, hospital care, emergency care and private care, which was felt and continues to be felt in the coronavirus crisis.

At the same time, electronic regulations in Croatia are very widespread, with 80 percent of prescriptions in pharmacies now being electronic.

However, the mortality rate of patients with acute myocardial infarction is relatively high, which implies that hospital admissions should be of better quality, and waiting lists are a particularly difficult problem, according to a new report by the Italian foundation Fondazione Farmafactoring, supported by the factoring company BFF.

The report is based on statistics and surveys among healthcare staff and users, and data on healthcare debts, waiting lists, services and per capita allocations, all of which have been placed in the context of the pandemic, albeit focusing on the first wave of the pandemic which hit back in the spring of 2020.

The report, which compares nine healthcare systems in the EU (Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain), shows that the Croatian healthcare is just behind Italy in terms of healthcare debts, and that in the Czech Republic, although have stabilised finances, the level of available services is much lower than it is in Croatia.

Croatia is the country with the lowest spending on healthcare, although in relative terms it is in third place in terms of its share in GDP, following both Poland and Slovakia. Experts stressed the need for a larger share of private funding and cost sharing.

They also noted unequal access, the late treatment of chronic diseases, poor coordination, and the general overburdening of general practitioners. In addition to that, the geographical distribution of the Croatian healthcare system's services and other such resources varies greatly across the country, the analysis points out.

One of the main issues concerns the inefficient allocation of resources, which often, instead of planning in advance, concentrates on retrospective loss financing, which is why the BFF has made its services available to institutions in Croatia.

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January the 26th, 2021 - PM Andrej Plenkovic has spoken about the current anti-epidemic measures in place across Croatia, noting that while the country's epidemiological picture remains favourable and has done for weeks now, there are still a couple of important factors which must be taken into consideration and looked at very carefully.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, while PM Andrej Plenkovic has voiced his desire for measure relaxations, he has pointed out that there are still things which must be monitored.

''If some of our foreign friends were to come to Croatia to visit they'd think that we have a very flexible regime indeed. We're constantly keeping an eye on the public health aspect of the pandemic, but also the economic one,'' said the Prime Minister, who confirmed that Minister Vili Beros had informed him that the latest numbers across the Croatia continue to be very favourable.

"Beros spoke about it all recently. The current mood at European Union level is such that due to new variants of the virus, which are obviously more deadly (or more transmissuble), there is a high level of caution. Some EU member states are continuing to opt for even more new restrictions. There are many countries that have a curfew in place, which is something which has limited everything,'' explained PM Andrej Plenkovic.

"The reduced dynamic in terms of the roll out of the vaccination represents yet another reason to exercise caution," says the prime minister. He stated, however, that the ministers had been ordered to prepare areas where a small step forward could be made in that regard.

"We're giving out generous funds, we've had these new measures in place since back at the end of November and the responsibility of people in general has had an effect," he noted, adding that the government is pleased with the downturn in terms of new cases of infection which is continuing, and he didn't want to comment on the situation regarding children returning to normal schooling.

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ZAGREB, 25 January, 2021 - The national COVID-19 response team is considering the relaxation of the ban on gatherings as of February 1 but there will be no major relaxing of epidemiological restrictions, the team's head, Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović said on Monday, ahead of the adoption of a new set of measures.

"There will be no complete lockdown in Croatia as in some other European countries but there won't be any major relaxation of the restrictions either. We need time to see what happens with the new virus strains," Božinović said.

The current restrictions are in force until the end of this week and before they expire, a new set of measures will be made known, with three restrictions regarding commerce, borders and public transportation likely to be extended, while the relaxation of the ban on gatherings is being discussed the most.

"In the current situation, there is not much room for a strategy of major relaxation of the restrictions. The worst thing would be to open something suddenly and then to have to close it down again," he said, noting that statistics on the number of new infections were better and better but that those number were not insignificant.

Future decisions will be impacted by the spread of the new virus strains which have already appeared in Croatia's neigbourhood, by the slowing down of the vaccination process and the fact that we are still in the winter period, he added.

As for plans by cafe and restaurants owners to stage a protest against anti-epidemic measures, Božinović said that protests were a democratic instrument but that he did not know against whom and what they would protest as restrictions had not been introduced with the intention of making someone's life harder.

"We all hope that as the number of new infections declines and vaccination proceeds some kind of normal life will be restored but it is clear that it won't happen tomorrow," he said.

Markotić: We can't be sure mutated viruses are not already in Croatia

The head of Zagreb's Dr Fran Mihaljević hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotić, said that the situation regarding virus mutation was being seriously followed and that one could not be absolutely sure that the mutated viruses had not already appeared in Croatia.

"There are for the time being no hotspots with an extreme increase in the number of new infections, which is an indirect indicator that the mutated virus, even if it has arrived in Croatia, is not replicating significantly. There will be more mutations in the future but they need not necessarily be bad for humans. Mutations more often harm the virus than they increase its contagiousness. The situation will be followed," said Markotić, noting that existing PCR tests can detect the British virus strain.

Capak: Croatia will not engage in bilateral talks with vaccine producers

Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) head Krunoslav Capak said that Croatia was registering a 20% decrease in the number of new infections in the last seven days compared to the week before.

A total of 69,984 persons have been vaccinated and 11,907 have been revaccinated, he said.

For those who need a second shot, vaccination will be postponed for a week due to lack of the vaccine but that will not affect the quality of vaccination or immunity as the second shot can be received up to 42 days after the first one, he said.

He noted that Croatia did not plan to hold bilateral talks with vaccine producers as a common approach had been agreed at EU level but stressed that in the next four weeks Croatia would obtain 14 fewer boxes of the vaccine or 13,650 fewer doses.

Moderna should deliver 4,800 doses on Sunday, and in early February 10,800 doses should arrive for which there is no information that they could be delayed, Capak said.

"AstraZeneca has been instructed by the European Commission today to respect the deadlines and the agreed quantities better, so we hope that after today's videoconference we will receive good news. The first delivery should be in mid-February, of 44,000 doses," he said.

"We are thinking about what to do if small deliveries continue but we believe that larger quantities will arrive. Much of the effort is now directed at making the pharmaceutical industry change the drastic reduction in vaccine deliveries for all EU countries," he said.

So far 284 suspected side-effects have been reported for the Pfizer vaccine, including 16 allergic reactions requiring administration of drugs and two requiring administration of adrenaline.

There have been 10 reports of side-effects for the Moderna vaccine, and the side-effects have all been mild.

The current 14-day incidence in Croatia is 216 new infections per 100,000 people. It is the highest in Sisak-Moslavina County, with 385.6 cases and the lowest in Istria, with 92.9 new infections per 100,000 people.

ZAGREB, 25 January, 2021 - About 20 cases of children with post-COVID syndrome have been registered in Croatia, the deputy director of Zagreb's Infectious Diseases Hospital, Zoran Barušić, said on Sunday.

Since the start of the epidemic, over 21,600 children under 19 have been infected with coronavirus and more and more have post-COVID syndrome, he told Croatian Television after the death of a 10-year-old boy, the youngest COVID fatality in Croatia.

The boy died at the Infectious Diseases Hospital early on Sunday of multisystem inflammatory syndrome as a result of coronavirus infection.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome, caused by the SARS-CoV- 2 virus, occurs in children within several days or several weeks of recovery from COVID-19. The syndrome can be mild but also extremely serious, Barušić said, adding that 16 children have been treated for it to date and that four are currently being treated at Zagreb's Infectious Diseases Hospital.

Eight children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome have been treated at Split University Hospital, six with a mild and two with a medium grave clinical picture, said dr. Branka Pulić, adding that all had recovered from COVID and had mild symptoms.

Two children with this rare syndrome have been hospitalised at Rijeka University Hospital.

Research shows that 70% of children with this syndrome require intensive care, 10% who recover have heart damage, and mortality is 1.5%.

ZAGREB, 25 January, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 134 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 32 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

The number of active cases in Croatia stands at 2,519. There are 1,485 COVID patients in hospitals, 138 of whom are on ventilators.

There are 15,109 people in self-isolation.

To date 1,156,456 people have been tested, including 2,423 in the last 24 hours.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case, 229,054 people have contracted the novel coronavrius, 4,859 of whom have died. A total of 221,676 people have recovered, including 579 over the past 24 hours.

January 25, 2021 - Fitness centers and gyms in Croatia are likely to reopen from February 1, a meeting between the government and the Headquarters revealed on Sunday, held to discuss potentially relaxing some of the epidemiological measures in place.

Namely, the current measures expire on January 31. As Index.hr has learned, although no final decisions were made, a consensus was reached at Sunday's meeting on a slight easing of measures on February 1. Most concessions will be in the segment of sports and recreation, but the opening of restaurant and cafe terraces is still on the table.

Prospective opening of gyms and concessions when it comes to sports training and competitions
Gyms will likely open on Monday, February 1, but that is not yet entirely certain. The opening of gyms is considered because there is no solid scientific evidence that they are places where the infection is spreading. It should be reminded that gyms were not in the last draft for closing in late November when stricter measures were introduced but were eventually included in the list.

On the same date, the circle of those who are allowed to train, compete and play sports, in general, could expand, at least when it comes to outdoor sports. However, as Index learned, it might also be possible for children to train indoors. According to the current measures in force until January 31, training and competitions are allowed only for athletes of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd category.

It is most likely that from February 1, cafes will be allowed to sell coffee outside, with the potential opening of terraces

When it comes to cafes, it is most likely that from February 1, the sale of coffee and similar beverages outside will be allowed. Recall, the fierce reactions of caterers came precisely to the decision according to which cafes cannot sell coffee outside, but kiosks, gas stations, and bakeries can. Restaurants that are also closed to guests are allowed at least delivery, while cafes have been completely closed for the past two months.

As Index finds out, the opening of restaurant and cafe terraces from February 1 is still in play. The competent Ministry and other ministries whose sectors could be covered by the concession are expected to conduct an additional evaluation according to which a final decision should be made. If a decision is made to open the terraces, work would likely be limited, probably until 10 pm.

Upper elementary students return to school
Upper elementary school students would return to schools in February instead of the online classes they now attend.

They also discussed lifting the ban on private gatherings of people from more than two households at Sunday's meeting, but Index revealed that it is not realistic.

Index also learned that as things stand now, the permitted numbers of people at various types of gatherings should remain as they are now.

Final decisions will be made in the middle of the week, most likely on Wednesday.

Why aren't more measures eased?
The Headquarters is concerned about epidemiological pictures in some European countries, and especially news about new strains. If the import of a new strain into Croatia was confirmed, it could mean that the concessions would not be as discussed at Sunday's meeting. A few days ago, it became clear that vaccine delivery at this stage would be significantly lower than expected. The Headquarters also believes that closed spaces continue to pose the most significant risk of spreading the infection.

It is precisely these three factors that are cited as the key reasons why there will be no stronger easing of measures from February 1, primarily when it comes to opening cafes and restaurants for guests.

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