ZAGREB, November 8, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said after meeting with the national coronavirus response team on Sunday that the epidemiological measures in place would be extended and additional ones would be considered.

"The response team have announced that they will be extending all the existing measures as of tomorrow. They are considering possible additional measures in consultation with the minister of science and education regarding online classes at universities and the possibility of working from home," Plenkovic told the press after the meeting.

He said that the national response team would hold press conferences three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, starting from Monday at 11 am.

The prime minister warned that the situation was still serious, but that the healthcare system was capable of withstanding the pressure of the epidemic.

November 8, 2020 - The latest on COVID-19 in Croatia, as Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic discusses new measures with the Civil Protection Headquarters. 

Index.hr reports that in the last 24 hours, 2543 new COVID-19 cases were recorded, and the number of active cases in Croatia today is 15,678.

Among them, 1396 patients are in hospital, of which 145 are on a ventilator. Forty-two people died. This is the second day in a row that most deaths have occurred in one day since the beginning of the epidemic.

A meeting, including the Prime Minister and members of the Headquarters, was held today. Among others, Krunoslav Capak, Alemka Markotić, Minister Vili Beroš, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković participated.

Plenković said that new measures were being considered and that talks would be held with the Minister of Education and the Minister of Labor.

"The basic restrictions that exist will continue to apply from tomorrow at midnight until further notice. The situation is serious," he said.

"The Headquarters has announced that it will extend all existing measures tomorrow, and new measures will be considered," Plenković said, adding that he would first talk to Minister Fuchs.

"Recommendations for working from home will also be considered," the prime minister added and said that the Headquarters would start with regular press conferences, which will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

"Starting tomorrow at 11 am, the Civil Protection Headquarters will return with press conferences on Monday, Wednesday, Friday," he added.

He added that the Dubrava Hospital events were not good, talking about power outages and vandalism, and added that he believed the situation would change with the new hospital management.

"I expect the new management of the hospital, which will take office next week, will put it all together," Plenković said.

He said that Milanović's latest comments are pathetic and miserable. "Maybe someone will write 'Enough' on the covers tomorrow," he added.

"For every insult, they will get an answer; for every lie, they will get an answer. As inappropriate as that is, it's right," he concluded.

To read more about coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

November the 8th, 2020 - Istrian tourism is continuing to shine bright in the otherwise concerning world of not only Croatian tourism but global travel. The Istrian peninsula has been praised on multiple occasions throughout the duration of the ongoing pandemic for its handling of not only the spread of the infection but the way it has coped in a broader economic sense.

As Morski writes, this weekend in Rovinj, three large hotels are open and functioning: Grand Park, Lone and Eden. Maistra is too meticulous of a company financially to keep three big hotels open if it isn't paying off. In fact, there is a great demand for rooms.

''We booked the Lone hotel through Booking.com. On Thursday night, the page read that there were only two rooms left,'' writes plavakamenica.hr.

Two weeks ago, the luxury wine hotel Franca Cattunara in Nova Vas was also full to the very last room, as was the famous San Rocco in neighbouring Brtonigla. Restaurants in Istria are also solidly full on weekends, which was revealed this morning in Rovinj's Rio, which, at this time of year, also serves breakfast in precisely the same way as it does during the very height of the summer tourist season.

The phenomenon of stability during the second wave of the coronavirus crisis is obviously happening for Istrian tourism. Despite the virtually closed borders and the very small number of people infected with the new coronavirus, a solid number of guests still continue visit this gorgeous part of the country and boost Istrian tourism each and every weekend. These visitors are mostly from Zagreb, which was confirmed fifteen days ago by the owner of San Rocca, Tulio Fernetich; The ''weekend invasion'' of guests from Zagreb to Istria was visible this morning as well, according to numerous Zagreb registrations on cars parked in front of Rovinj hotels.

Istrian tourism, or at least some parts of Istria, are doing relatively well given the truly extraordinary circumstances that govern Croatia at this moment in time. Therefore, any lockdown measures for Istrian tourism and the local Istrian economy would be quite catastrophic indeed.

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ZAGREB, Nov 8, 2020 - Croatian Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Oleg Butkovic, got tested for coronavirus on Saturday and his test returned positive, his Ministry said on Sunday.

Minister is feeling well as he has milder symptoms of the infection, and he will continue working in self-isolation, adhering to recommendations by epidemiologists and doctors, it was said in the press release.

ZAGREB, Nov 8, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,543 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 42 related deaths, and this is the second day in a row that a record number of single-day fatalities was reported, the national COVID-19 response team said on Sunday.

The number of active cases in Croatia today stands at 15,678, including 1,396 COVID patients in hospitals and 145 on ventilators.

Since the start of the epidemic, a total of 67,247 people have contracted the novel coronavirus, 794 of them have died, and 50,775 have recovered, including 2,365 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 31,427 people are self-isolating.

To date, 559,016 people have been tested for coronavirus, including 8,787 over the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, November 7, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, of 8,624 tests conducted for coronavirus, 28% of them, that is 2,399 have returned positive, Croatia's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Saturday.

There have been 35 COVID-related fatalities, a new single-day record, and the death toll stands now at 752. On Friday, there were 34 COVID-related deaths.

Currently, there are 15,542 active cases, including 1,330 patients who are receiving hospital treatment, and 128 of them are placed on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the new virus was first registered in Croatia, 64,704 persons have been infected, and 48,410 have recovered, including 2,389 in the past 24 hours.

Currently 31,642 persons are self-isolating.

To date 550,229 persons have been tested.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 6th of November, 2020, one travel agency, Croatia Luxury Rent, specialising in the placement of luxury private accommodation, achieved an impressive 12 percent increase in arrivals when compared to the summer period last year throughout the period from the end of May to the end of August this year.

With an average occupancy rate of as much as 86 percent even in spite of the pandemic is to be applauded. The founder of Croatia Luxury Rent, Josip Stulic, has offers along the entire Croatian coast.

The best results were achieved by the counties of Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar, followed by the counties of Zadar and Split-Dalmatia. The weakest results were recorded in the counties from the extreme south of Dalmatia, which can easily be explained by the significant traffic distance for visitors arriving by car, and the disruption of air traffic we've seen this year.

The fact that after the end of the spring lockdown, most of the emitting markets rated Croatia as a safe destination is responsible for the overall positive result. Stulic emphasised that he expects Croatia to have a reputation as a safe destination next year as well.

"The largest numbers of booking requests were related to the safety of accommodation, a kind of isolation from major tourist areas and accommodation facilities that allow a sense of residence in the units, such as swimming pools, jacuzzis, outdoor fireplaces, and multimedia," explained Stulic.

Of the total number of Croatia Luxury Rent's guests, the Germans made up 26 percent, 11 percent of the agency's visitors came from the Benelux countries, 10 percent were Scandinavians, 9 percent were Austrians, 6 percent were Slovenes and the same number was made up by the Swiss, and finally - 5 percent were Hungarians and Poles.

"Our predictions are that Croatian tourism and the next tourist season will be attractive to guests primarily from Europe, and we expect that Croatia will be one of the tourist leaders in the Mediterranean in 2021,'' said Stulic.

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As Novac/Augustin Palokaj writes on the 6th of November, 2020, the Croatian GDP drop should be at around 9.6 percent this year, which is among the largest declines in the EU, as only Spain with a 12.4 percent drop and Italy with 9.9 percent drop will have a larger decline than that.

The good news for Croatia is that mass job losses have been avoided so far, that unemployment growth is much lower than the economic downturn and that unemployment will drop again next year. Public debt in all EU countries is skyrocketing, which is understandable in the circumstances of the biggest crisis to ever hit it. Here in Croatia, public debt will rise to 86.6 percent of GDP this year, but should start falling once again next year. These are the main forecasts for Croatia from the autumn economic forecasts published by the European Commission in Brussels.

Croatia will begin to recover next year when GDP growth is expected to be 5.7 percent, and in 2022 - 3.7 percent.

These are better forecasts for Croatia than those published by the European Commission back in July, in which it forecast a 10.8 percent Croatian GDP drop. However, the Commission now predicts a slightly slower recovery next year, which, according to the latest forecasts, should be 5.7 percent, while earlier forecasts mentioned a possible growth in 2021 of 7.5 percent.

At the level of the entire European Union, GDP should fall by 7.4 percent this year, the least in Lithuania and Ireland with just over 2 percent and the most in Spain by 12.4 percent, Italy 9.9 percent, Croatia 9.6 percent, France 9 , 4 percent and Portugal 9.3 percent.

France and Italy, with a drop in employment of over 10 percent, had the largest impact on the labour market, while here in Croatia, the decline stood at only 1.4 percent. Unemployment in Croatia should be at the level of 7.7 percent this year, which will be at the exact average unemployment rate across the EU. Unemployment in Croatia should fall to 7.5 percent next year, and then fall again below 7 percent in 2022.

This situation in Croatia is, of course, a consequence of the crisis caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and preventing the collapse of the labour market is the result of multiple government measures. However, since they could dry out, this area could soon become far more sensitive.

However, the Commission predicts that the labour market will gradually recover and that private consumption and public investment will play a major role in economic growth. The reconstruction of Zagreb following the earthquake and the use of funds from the EU Recovery Fund will play a major role in this. Much will also depend on the recovery in the countries that are Croatia's main trading partners.

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ZAGREB, November 6, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday that the government's scientific council had assessed that the current measures  were proportionate to the threat of the spread of coronavirus.

"We have ascertained that there is a very clear common denominator that the measures we are taking are appropriate and proportional to the threat that the epidemic currently represents to the health of our citizens," Plenkovic told reporters after a meeting of the scientific council in the government.

He underscored that if necessary, the council would recommend further measures while the National Civil Protection Authority, that is the COVID-19 crisis management team, would ramp up the current measures.

Council's common stance: No lockdown or curfew

Plenkovic said that it was the common stance both of the government and the scientific council that a complete lockdown will not be introduced nor a curfew, reiterating that that "was never on the cards."

"We assessed that the overall fight against Covid-19 until now was good. It is good that we can see that the dynamics of the infection over the past few days has decreased significantly compared to the preceding weeks," said Plenkovic.

Asked whether anyone in the scientific council had suggested more stringent measures, the prime minister said that a margin existed to further sharpen measures and that the government was open to anything that could slow down the spread rate 0f COVID-19.

In response to reporters' claims that oncology patients in some hospitals will not be receiving their medication due to the debt to drug wholesalers, Plenkovic said that the budget revision is in the parliament and as soon as it is adopted certain funds will be paid to wholesalers but also that he has instructed Health Minister Vili Beros to investigate the situation.

"He has been in contact with the relevant health institutions today. I don't believe that that will be reflected in the broader context. If a shortage of a certain medication has occurred, I think that is more an exception than the rule in the health system," he said.

Referring to claims that numerous doctors are sending dramatic messages and that the health system seems on the verge of caving in to the epidemic pressure, the prime minister said that Minister Beros was talking with doctors right at this moment and that everything was being done to improve the quality and preparedness of the entire health system.

"The thing that is good and we spoke about that - is that a series of professions within the public healthcare system will additionally be engaged with a strong motivation to care for the health and welfare of our citizens," added Plenkovic.

ZAGREB, November 6, 2020 - Croatian scientist Ivica Djikic has responded to Croatian Public Health Institute head Krunoslav Capak's claim that Djikic's estimate that about 1,500 people will die of COVID-19 by the end of November is exaggerated, noting that his estimates are based on facts and calling for additional measures.

"What is your estimate of the number of fatalities by the end of November - is it 1,000 or 1,300?" Djakic asked Capak on Friday, stressing that his estimate about 1,500 fatalities was based on data.

In the February-June period 108 people in Croatia died of COVID-19, in the July-November period the number of fatalities was 575, which together gives 683 fatalities, he said.

The reason why the number of fatalities increased 5.3 times are the measures that were applied, Djikic said, noting that the number of fatalities would continue to grow in November if measures to curb the growth of new infections were not adopted.

According to estimates, the average number of deaths per day in November is 32, times 31 days plus 546 fatalities by November, which by the end of the month will result in 1,538 deaths, Djikic said.

"I am calling on you to introduce additional efficient measures as of Monday, not a full lockdown, not a curfew, because you have a whole set of other available measures, so as to reduce the mortality rate," Djikic said, calling on Capak to listen to appeals by six professional associations, bringing together different experts, from physicians to epidemiologists, who have requested fast action and appropriate measures as well.

He points to an estimate by the World Health Organisation under which the wearing of face masks and strict control of gatherings can help save more than 261,000 lives in Europe by February 2021.

Djikic notes that during the summer he called on Capak and the government to provide additional capacity for antigen testing, to which they turned a deaf ear.

"A few weeks ago you even said publicly that fast antigen tests are not good enough for Croatia. Now you are saying the opposite," Djikic said, noting that he could accept Capak's having changed his mind but that he was not sure fast antigen testing could be introduced in a professional and useful way.

As for the planned antigen testing, Djikic said he was not certain that the approximately 37,500 tests the government planned to purchase would be sufficient if one wished to test around 10,000 or more people daily at the current stage of the epidemic.

The reason of Croatia's success in the spring stage of the epidemic was the timely adoption of restrictions and compliance by citizens, Djikic said, adding that he was confident the same could be achieved now if one relied on expert data and stopped confusing the public with incorrect statements.