ZAGREB, 9 Feb 2022 - In the last 24 hours 11,299 coronavirus cases have been registered in Croatia, nearly 4,000 fewer than last Wednesday, as well as 37 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours 16,904 persons have been tested for the virus.

There are 47,530 active cases, including 2,188 hospitalised patients, of whom 186 are hooked on to ventilators, while 20,788 persons are self-isolating.

To date 56.67% of the total population has been vaccinated, or 67.42% of adults, of whom 65.08% are fully vaccinated.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

February 9, 2022 - Student self-testing in Croatia should begin soon as the Ministry of Science and Education has sent instructions to principals.

How will it look?
Index.hr reports that the procedure should be as follows: The Civil Protection Headquarters will deliver rapid antigen tests to schools. Schools will then distribute the tests to parents or guardians, or students. Testing is conducted once a week by a parent, guardian, or student. If the test result is positive, information about the positive test is reported to the educational institution's selected family doctor or pediatrician.

All students with a negative result continue to attend classes regularly, and if they test positive, they do not come to school.

Testing is repeated for the entire class in which positive test results are determined the first day after a student receives a positive Covid test.

What did Fuchs say about it today?
Minister of Science and Education Radovan Fuchs commented on student self-testing in an interview with HRT today, confirming that the distribution of tests has begun.

Fuchs called the process of rapid antigen testing "a de facto process of abolishing self-isolation for students so that all those who are not ill are in school." However, he also said that this was not a step towards mandatory testing or vaccination.

Fuchs said the first part of the tests, about 300,000, went to Dalmatia yesterday.

"At the end of this or the beginning of next week, all schools will have tests available."
"Of course, we are going to the islands as a priority, as it is a bit more difficult to distribute there, and that's why we went to the Dalmatian regions first.

The rest, up to a million, arrive maybe today in civil protection warehouses, and the moment these tests are received, they immediately move on to schools. So I think by the end of the week or early next week, all schools will have tests available," Fuchs said.

“We have said that this student testing is voluntary and that parents will declare in one piece of paper whether or not they will conduct testing of their child,” he said.

What if someone refuses?
"All those who refuse, de facto, nothing will happen to them, nor the children, of course, except that the moment a positive student appears in the class, or possibly someone from that child's environment becomes ill, that child will have to go into isolation," Fuchs said.

He also said that these tests are very similar to those that can be bought in pharmacies and that, unlike PCR, it is not inserted deep into the nose with a test cotton swab or stick. Still, a swab is taken from the front of the nasal cavity, and it is a straightforward procedure.

There are no repressive measures.
Fuchs also said that parents who will not test their children and will say that they were negative will not be traced because they do not intend to apply any repressive measures.

“I hope the parents are responsible enough and won’t cheat because this is done so that the education system would virtually abolish self-isolation using a self-testing system,” he said. 

"These slogans, shouts and petitions 'We don't give our children' are quite incomprehensible; I don't understand them, no one touches children. In fact, after these two years of the pandemic, we are doing everything to give children a more normal life and attend school better," said Fuchs.

"Removing both testing and self-isolation if field data justify it."
Fuchs also said that if the number of positives dropped significantly, in February, they would switch to the testing variant only in those classes when it is ordered. It would be ordered when a positive case occurs.

"And after that, we would go for the complete abolition of both testing and self-isolation if the data from the field justify it," Fuchs said. He also said that they did not consider testing children in kindergartens.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

February 9, 2022 - The vaccination campaign across the country continues during omicron, as Prime Minister Andrej Plenković received booster dose today. Croatia is currently leading in terms of mortality per million inhabitants, and at the same time, is at the bottom of the EU in terms of vaccination.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković received booster dose of the vaccine, reports Telegram. With the publication of a photo of the moment when he received the dose, Plenković again called on the citizens to respond to the vaccination, especially in the middle of the wave of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

“In addition to my previous recovery from COVID-19 and two doses of vaccine, I also received a booster dose today, in consultation with doctors. The additional dose is particularly important during omicron circumstances. Get vaccinated and use a booster to protect against more severe forms of COVID'', Plenković announced on Twitter. The Prime Minister received the second dose five months ago, on September 10, 2021.

Plenković calls for vaccination in the midst of the collapse of the vaccination campaign. It was announced today that the CNIPH is developing a new strategy because sufficient quantities of vaccines, mobile teams, and counseling centers have not yielded the desired results. Yesterday, only 613 people were vaccinated with the first dose in Croatia.

Croatia is currently leading in terms of mortality per million inhabitants, and at the same time, is at the bottom of the EU in terms of vaccination. The number of deaths in Croatia during the pandemic is 14,244, and in the first week of February alone, 367 people died. In January, 267 people died in the same period, which means that in the first seven days of this month, as many as 100 people died more than in the same period last month - and this can be attributed to poor vaccination.

In Croatia, only 56.5 percent of citizens were vaccinated with the first dose which, when it comes to COVID, is too little to reduce mortality. 54.3 percent of citizens were vaccinated with two doses, and 19.6 percent with the booster. Citizens' interest in vaccination is declining from month to month - yesterday only 613 people were vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine, and the day before, on Sunday, just 11 of them.

For more, check out our politics section.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 8 Feb 2022 - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) vice president Branko Bačić said on Tuesday that the current epidemiological situation did not allow for a possible revocation of COVID passes.

"It's neither under discussion nor consideration," Bačić said in response to reporters' questions if the authorities are considering doing away with COVID certificates.

He recalled that the current epidemiological situation, including a rate of only 67% of fully vaccinated persons and the current incidence rate, were not conducive to plans to ease the restrictions.

Since the introduction of the COVID certificate mandate in the public sector, approximately 120,000 asymptomatic citizens have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

He said that vaccination rates in the countries that are now thinking of scrapping COVID passes are much higher than in Croatia.

There is no country in Europe that has completely done away with COVID certificates,  he said.

ZAGREB, 8 Feb 2022 - In the last 24 hours 5,545 new coronavirus cases, out of 13,669 tests, and 50 related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Tuesday.

There are 43,467 active cases, including 2,229 hospitalised patients, of whom 182 are on ventilators, while 19,966 persons are self-isolating.

To date, Croatia has registered 990,595 coronavirus cases, 14,244 related deaths, and 56.65% of the total population has been vaccinated, i.e. 67.40% of adults, of whom 65.05% fully.

7 February 2022 - COVID certificates will not be abolished for the time being, the head of the COVID-19 crisis management team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said on Monday, refuting chief epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak's announcement that they might be partially abolished.

"From the start, we introduced a restricted COVID certificate mandate in Croatia and are following everything that is going on. However, the measure will stay for the time being, including the use of COVID certificates as it is," Božinović told the press.

Capak said earlier today that a partial abolishment of COVID certificates was being considered because they are losing in importance since the appearance of the Omicron variant and the fact that this year Croatia has registered 40,000 reinfections.

Božinović said the crisis management team would continue to follow developments in Croatia, the world and Europe, recalling that in some European countries it is not possible to enter a bar, a restaurant or a hotel without a COVID certificate, and that Germany has announced easing restrictions just before Easter.

"At the moment, we are still not in that situation," he said, adding that incidence in Croatia is still high.

"Let's be realistic, those advocating a major abolishment (of restrictions) have higher vaccination rates," he said, but would not specify the number of new daily cases which would be acceptable to abolish the certificates.

Božinović said 125,000 infections had been detected since the certificates were mandated in public services and that this had slowed down the spread of the virus and ensured the functioning of all public services.

Letter to border police on how to treat migrants

The minister also commented on a letter to border police on how to treat migrants, saying that it consisted of instructions which took into account vulnerable groups and respect for the law and that they were police station-level guidelines.

He added that the instructions stated that "consideration should be given with regard to video recordings and other activities that are not allowed in border areas under the law," adding that there was nothing contentious about that.

ZAGREB, 6 Feb 2022 - Croatia has recorded 6,001 new coronavirus cases and 59 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The national coronavirus response team said on Sunday that 4,780 new infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus had been detected by PCR tests, while media reported that another 1,221 had been identified by rapid antigen tests.

Currently, 2,140 COVID patients are being treated in hospitals, 178 are on ventilators, while 25,006 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 983,780 people have been registered as having been infected with the novel coronavirus. Of this number, 14,137 have died and 917,608 have recovered, including 8,706 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 4,328,022 people have been tested to date, including 10,787 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 5,132,763 vaccine doses have been administered, making up 56.64% of the total population, or 67.39% of the adult population, who have been vaccinated.

A total of 2,298,364 people have received at least one dose while 2,212,347 of them have been fully vaccinated, making up 65.02% of the adult population.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 6 Feb 2022 - With 73 deaths per million people, Croatia topped the EU list of COVID deaths in the past week, Jutarnji List newspaper wrote on Sunday.

It noted that the figure confirms misconceptions about a lower risk of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

"Omicron is a milder variant of the coronavirus and its consequences will not be as disastrous as those of Delta. We could ease the restrictions because hospitals are not being filled with too many patients, there is a mild decrease in infections or their number is stagnating. All these are self-delusions and attempts at downplaying the danger of the coronavirus pandemic which, unfortunately, continues to claim a lot of lives, namely more than 50 daily", the newspaper said. 

Last week, the National Bureau of Statistics provided a realistic picture of what the novel coronavirus has done to Croatia in the last two years. 63,611 people died in 2021 alone, 12,000 more than in the pre-pandemic year.

From March 2020, when the pandemic began in Croatia, until December 2021, there was a 16.9% increase in the number of deaths compared with the five-year average for the period preceding the pandemic. This translates to the deaths of 16,146 more Croatian citizens.

"These grim figures could have been much less frustrating had Croatian citizens gotten vaccinated like people in the majority of EU countries, as shown by the number of deaths in the last week", Jutarnji List said.

Despite a large number of infections, the Netherlands did not record a single COVID-19 death in the past week. Germany reported 10 deaths, Austria, which has made vaccination mandatory, registered 11 deaths, while Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Denmark had about 20 deaths per million people. All these countries have high vaccination rates, which produces obvious results. On the other hand, Croatia had 73 deaths and Bulgaria 68 deaths per million people, the newspaper said.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

February the 6th, 2022 - Croatian schoolchildren will not need to begin having tests at home before arriving at their school premises for another week. It seems that the pricing information has also come in, which has been eagerly awaited by parents.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Directorate for Commodity Stocks has decided to purchase a massive three million rapid antigen tests for the at home testing of Croatian schoolchildren at a price of 6.95 kuna + VAT, as reported by Media servis.

On top of the pricing for the tests intended for Croatian schoolchildren, all of the necessary delivery dynamics have also been agreed and the first tranche of one million rapid antigen tests will be delivered by the 9th of this month at the very latest, and the rest within a period no longer than fourteen days.

Minister of Science and Education Radovan Fuchs said on Thursday that the at home testing of Croatian schoolchildren will begin when the Directorate of Commodity Stocks actually physically delivers the tests to the country's schools, and will be conducted in three phases, after which he hopes the need for them at all will disappear, writes tportal.

On Mondays, parents of Croatian schoolchildren will test their children for the presence of the novel coronavirus, and if a positive case occurs in the classroom, the test will be repeated and students who are negative can continue to go to school.

''We're going to be basing this on trust and assume that parents won't try to cheat the system to suit their liking, because the meaning of this measure is to keep as many children in their classrooms as possible,'' said Fuchs, adding that entire classes "dropped out" of their classrooms just because several students had tested positive.

Testing will be conducted for one month, and if everything goes as we imagined, we will move on to testing only in classes where a positive student appears.

The third step is the total abolition of such testing, Fuchs said, and expressed hope that the planned timetable could be realised, and that in the end it will be possible to abolish the wearing of masks as well.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 5 Feb 2022 - In the last 24 hours, there have been 11,230 new cases of infection with coronavirus in Croatia, while 43 patients have died, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

A total of 7,536 new cases of the infection were identified with PCR tests while 3,694 were identified with rapid antigen tests.

The number of active cases now stands at 56,020, including 2,115 patients who are hospitalised, of whom 194 are on ventilators.

A total of 27,233 people are self-isolating.

Since the start of the epidemic in March 2020, 979,000 people have become infected with the novel coronavirus and 14,078 have died.

To date, 4,317,235 persons have been tested, including 15,314 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 56.62% of the total population has been vaccinated with at least one dose or 67.37% of adults. A total of 2,211,326 adults have been fully vaccinated.