As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of October, 2020, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, said that rapid antigen tests would help speed up the coronavirus testing process and reach the population, but PCR tests remain the "gold" standard. He also explained just who can be considered coronavirus positive even without having been tested for the disease.

"These rapid antigen tests have reached a stage of development, we have researched them relatively well and we know what their flaws and positive sides are. They're relatively specific,'' Krunoslav Capak told Dnevnik Nova TV.

If someone is really coronavirus positive, he will certainly return a positive result on a PCR test, which is still the gold standard, and if someone is negative on an antigen test, we cannot be one hundred percent sure that he is indeed actually negative,'' Capak said.

“If there are symptoms, we'll check with a PCR test. We'll check the negative results,'' pointed out the director of HZJZ.

Priority is given to people who have symptoms of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Priority is given to people who have symptoms and will be tested with the use of rapid antigen tests. ''It will help us in the speed of testing and population coverage,” he said.

With the flu season rapidly approaching, Capak reiterated that it will be difficult to distinguish the flu virus from the new coronavirus because there will be a lot of respiratory symptoms typically present in both diseases.

"People who have symptoms and have been in contact with those who are infected and haven't been tested will be considered coronavirus positive. We're now going with joint tests and that will be a significant help in terms of diagnostics," he pointed out.

"People who have characteristic symptoms of the new coronavirus - fever, cough, shortness of breath and other symptoms - and have been in contact with someone who is infected, but haven't been, are considered coronavirus positive," explained Capak.

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October 31, 2020 - The Mayor of Vis town and the Head of the Vis Civil Protection, Ivo Radica, addresses his fellow citizens after the first COVID-19 cases recorded on Vis. 

"Unfortunately, the coronavirus happened to us too. So far, we have two positive cases, and there are more tests. The Vis Civil Protection Headquarters closed the kindergarten today for preventive reasons. In elementary school, first, fourth, and fifth grade had no classes on Friday, and as you know, Monday and Tuesday are holidays, so we’ll see what happens in the next few days. High school students have to wear protective masks. Also, in the High School, a conversation was held with the principal to stick to epidemiological measures a little more," said Radica for Morski.hr.

"We know that the All Saints celebration is ahead of us, that we will visit cemeteries in the town of Vis, that many people who are dearest will come here and I would ask us to try to adhere to all these epidemiological measures, to try to visit the graves of our loved ones throughout the day, and we have a couple of days. And if there are crowds there, that there is not much socializing in the cemetery or gathering. I would appeal to all catering facilities to pay attention to epidemiological measures these days, i.e., to all those conditions that should be respected in the work of catering facilities. As the Chief of the Civil Protection Headquarters, based on the Law on the Work of Catering Facilities, which has so far been allowed to work until midnight, I would not like to have it shortened to 10 pm. It will also depend on all of us whether we tighten measures.

I want to emphasize that testing for the elderly and infirm is in process. Please don’t put pressure on nursing homes because we know our most vulnerable group of people are there. In my last address, I said I would not like to address anyone this way. Unfortunately, the coronavirus has come to us; we have the opportunity, if we are all responsible and if we all adhere to the prescribed epidemiological measures, to stop it and not spread it further. Figuratively, it's like when one small fire happens, and you take a tire and a bucket of water and put it out. Let’s make sure Canadairs don't have to put out that fire.

Let's be patient for a week to see what will happen, and please, let's all be responsible," concluded the mayor of Vis, Ivo Radica.

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

ZAGREB, October 31, 2020  - In the last 24 hours, 2,769 new coronavirus cases and 15 related fatalities have been confirmed, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are now 15,952 active cases, including 1,049 patients who are receiving hospital treatment, of whom 82 are on ventilators.

With the 15 latest fatalities, the death toll has climbed to 546.

Since February 25, when the first case of the coronavirus infection was confirmed in the country, 49,316 people have tested positive for the novel virus and 32,818 of them have recovered, including 1,908 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 27,940 people are self-isolating.

Since the onset of the epidemic, Croatia has conducted 494,022 tests.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of October, 2020, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has stated that we're now entering the most difficult phase of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, but added that the growth in the number of infected people in Croatia is slower than it is over in Western Europe. He still believes that we can avoid further tightening of measures, including a damaging lockdown. The director of HZJZ, Krunoslav Capak, was a guest on RTL Danas (Today) recently. Asked what other measures could be introduced in the fight against coronavirus, he said that they presented the measures that came into force on Tuesday.

"We're just getting started with the measures. We're not going to introduce any new ones for a few days now because we need to see the results of these ones first,'' he replied, adding that HZJZ still has ''a whole range of measures'' in their arsenal.

''The additional limitation of the number of people who are permitted to gather together, the additional limitation of working hours, the additional limitation of the number of people who can participate in sporting competitions, training and so on. So... a whole host of other measures exist. I'm not announcing them and it doesn't mean that they'll come into force,'' the HZJZ director said.

Lockdown?

Capak said that the reason for the state of the financial and economic situation in the country is "absolutely not" the only reason why the National Civil Protection Headquarters isn't yet going for a new lockdown. "It's just one of the elements. Epidemiologists need to ban things and close things down because it reduces contact, and it's the most effective way to combat contracting this new infection,'' he said, adding that there are a number of ''social, psychological, financial and all other aspects'' that the government must address and take care of.

''The government that must take care of that. That isn't our job as epidemiologists, it's the job of  those who make the decisions, it's them who must take care of it,'' he said, adding that Croatia doesn't have as much growth as other, neighbouring countries and European Union countries.

"We've got the Scandinavians who are traditionally good, but most of these Central and Western European countries have seen huge growth. Our growth isn't so massive and we think our measures are good and balanced, and that these measures that we've adopted are good and that they're going to have an effect,'' the HZJZ director said.

When asked if he expects Croatia to go reach more than 3,000 newly infected people a day, he said that he thinks it's realistic "that the number will reach 3,000 in the next few days". "But after that, at least in my opinion, it won't really grow more,'' he noted.

''During the summer, we had 30 to 35 percent asymptomatic people. Today we think we have a little less of them, about 25 to 13 percent. We currently have 14,000 active cases and 987 people hospitalised, that’s about 7 percent. 7 to 10 percent is realistic in that there are more severe cases that require hospitalisation. We have 71 on respirators, which is 0.5 percent of the total active cases in Croatia,'' he said.

He revealed that Croatia can cope with even over the current amount of 10,000 people tested in a day. "We still have about 20 to 25 percent of the space because in some counties the numbers are lower and they test less," he said, adding that here in Zagreb, we're "on the verge of not being able to cope anymore."

"Because Zagreb now has huge numbers," the HZJZ director said, the praising people who work day and night to process coronavirus test samples.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of October, 2020, in an interview with Media Service Week, CNB Governor Boris Vujcic spoke about whether the Croatian economy can withstand another lockdown, about recovery, the budget, international reserves and revealed whether the pandemic will make it harder for us to enter the Eurozone.

Many countries are introducing lockdown, although we're wary of that word, in Croatia it is being talked about more and more often due to the worsening epidemiological situation. If that scenario happens again, can our economy survive it?

''We can, we can certainly survive even if there's a full lockdown. However, it must be borne in mind that it's very expensive, as it turned out to be before as well. You can see that we ended the year with a budget deficit of 29.5 billion kuna. This is due to just this type of lockdown. If possible, it is good to avoid this type of lockdown because it leaves consequences in terms of a large debt that will have to be repaid tomorrow,'' said Boris Vujcic for Media servis.

He emphasised that the CNB is in a position to be able to finance needs as they could in the spring, and if we continue with the current epidemiological measures for a long time, Boris Vujcic says that it will be a blow to the living standard of the entire population. According to the latest estimates, the decline in GDP this year will be a concerning 8 percent, while next year it is expected to grow by 5 percent and by the end of 2022 there'll be a full recovery for Croatia. These percentages, especially the recovery forecast, are considered unrealistic by many in political circles and even the economic profession, especially those who take into account that Croatian public debt is a sky high 330 billion kuna and that the country's budget is mostly based on personal spending and borrowing.

''Just after we came out with those predictions, the number of coronavirus infections also rose sharply. It means that some of these negative risks have begun to materialise. However, once again, it's very difficult to say what will happen by the end of the quarter,'' he explained.

Asked if there were any indications that this estimated decline in GDP would be higher this year and that a slower recovery would follow, he said that the CNB gives its estimates only every three months and that in the latter they said that negative risks prevailed:

"In the autumn baseline scenario, we can assume that we'll have a vaccine in the first quarter. I think this is the most realistic assumption at the moment because as far as I hear from epidemiologists, coronavirus vaccines are in their final stages of testing,'' Boris Vujcic noted.

If things do develop that way, he claims that Croatia will have a faster economic recovery. However, if complications occur, then a worse situation awaits us. He believes that at the moment we're balancing well between restrictive measures and preserving the domestic economy. When it comes to the CNB's gross international reserves, when asked if it was critical at the time of the spring lockdown and if he wondered during that period whether they were sufficient, he replied:

"Yes When something like this starts, then one always wonders if they're going to be enough. When this started, there was a sudden demand for foreign exchange. We responded by intervening with international reserves of 5.1 percent of GDP, which is a huge intervention. In a couple of weeks, we had to spend 2.6 billion euros, and at that moment, of course, one can see how much these reserves are and what will happen if they continue to decrease at this rate. You get the question of: How long can it last?''

But then the CNB agreed with the European Central Bank to establish a swap line, that is, for us to give them kuna and they give us euros. Governor Boris Vujcic explains that at that time, all speculators against the kuna gave up because everyone on the market knows that this will increase international reserves and the possibility of maintaining exchange rate stability. In September, these reserves amounted to 18.3 billion kuna. If we fail to avoid a new lockdown, will we again find ourselves in a similar situation where we're wondering if we have sufficient supplies?

"I think we're even more prepared at the moment than we were back at the beginning. The main reason is that in July we entered the exchange rate mechanism of the European Union - ERM II. In this mechanism, we have automatic access to the swap line of the European Central Bank,'' assured Boris Vujcic.

Since we've been in a kind of "euro waiting room" since back in July and there are earlier estimates that Croatia could introduce the euro on January the 1st, 2023, will the pandemic prolong that waiting room?

Boris Vujcic explained that we eliminated the first risk, and that was the entry into the exchange rate mechanism, and the second risk is that we might not end up meeting the nominal convergence criteria:

"In terms of inflation, interest rates and exchange rates, it's unlikely. As far as public debt is concerned, it's unlikely, because our public debt must fall by one twentieth of the difference between the current level of public debt and 60 percent. This is a realistic expectation. The biggest and currently the only real risk is that the budget deficit must be kept below 3 percent,'' concluded VNB Governor Boris Vujcic.

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October 31, 2020 - A closer look at 2020 for Croatia's national carrier, as Croatia Airlines recorded almost 1.2 million fewer passengers and a net loss of HRK 243.5 million.

Croatian Aviation reports that Croatia Airlines ends the first nine months of 2020 with a financial result directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the deepest crisis in civil aviation history.

The epidemiological crisis has drastically reduced the demand for air transport services, which, together with the resulting traffic restrictions, has imposed the need to reduce capacity and drastic cuts in the scheduled flight schedule by reducing crashes, that is, by canceling or reducing flight operations on existing routes or by abandoning the introduction of new planned routes.

In the current market circumstances, Croatia Airlines made an operating loss of HRK 222.4 million in the first nine months of this year, which with a net financing result, gives a net loss of HRK 243.5 million.

The increase in the net loss of HRK 195.1 million compared to the same period in 2019, which is a direct consequence of the reduction in demand for air transport service in the context of a global pandemic, directly reduced the company's revenues by 70 percent between April and September 2020.

As a result, there was a reduction of 11,709 flights and a drop in the number of transported passengers of 69 percent (-1,168,190 passengers). The structure of the crash was additionally adjusted to the needs of reduced traffic. Given the market circumstances, greater emphasis was placed on using the Dash 8-Q400 fleet, whose capacity is smaller compared to the fleet of Airbus 319/320.

Due to reduced demand for air transport services during the coronavirus crisis, Croatia Airlines recorded a drop in passenger traffic of more than 90 percent in April and May, 80 percent in June, 70 percent in July, 67 percent in August, and 80 percent in September.

In the first nine months of 2020, the number of passengers in domestic regular traffic (142,958 passengers transported) decreased by 64 percent; in international regular traffic (384,712 passengers), this decrease was 69 percent, and in extraordinary traffic (5,700 passengers), there was a decrease of 91. A total of 533,381 passengers were transported in the first nine months, i.e., 1,168,190 fewer passengers than in the same period in 2019 (-69 percent).

Given the worsening epidemiological situation and a further decline in bookings in the coming period (autumn and winter), no significant improvements are expected. These are low season months (winter season) when the company makes losses under normal conditions. An additional problem in maintaining liquidity is the unpredictability of the duration of the crisis caused by the pandemic and the pressure on its cash flows.

The company's operations until the end of 2020 will largely depend on external factors, decisions and recommendations of the Croatian Civil Protection Headquarters, which directly affect the possibility of travel in domestic and international regular traffic, reciprocity in abolishing or facilitating measures at the interstate level and the achieving optimal occupancy and average tariffs in conditions of reduced demand caused by COVID-19 directly (public health restrictions) or indirectly (financial and security reasons).

As the Croatian national airline, Croatia Airlines represents a strategic part of the Croatian transport infrastructure, which came to the fore in this crisis period because the company contributed to maintaining transport connections with the Croatian economy and citizens.

From the beginning of the crisis until May 2020, the company helped 23,000 Croatian citizens return, made itself available to the Republic of Croatia to transport humanitarian aid, returned Croatian soldiers from Afghanistan, and performed several repatriation flights from different parts of Europe.

In the conditions of the crisis and the consequences for the tourist season, the additional importance and contribution of Croatia Airlines to tourism is in connecting Adriatic airports with European destinations in the season when the arrival of foreign airlines was significantly reduced. In the autumn-winter period, and especially due to the current deterioration of the epidemiological situation, the importance of Croatia Airlines will be further emphasized by maintaining Croatia's connection with major European destinations, as a large number of foreign airlines have already withdrawn from the Croatian market or reduced flights. 

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ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - Croatian independent MEP Mislav Kolakusic has sent a letter to his colleagues in the European Parliament, complaining about the closure of the EU House due to the new COVID-19 outbreak claiming that COVID-19 is just a cold.

"Tens of millions of our citizens fought numerous wars to preserve democracy. Millions of our citizens sacrificed their lives for the freedom of speech and movement, and we are closing the doors of the Parliament due to the fear of a possible cold," Kolakusic said in his letter which was carried by the Euractiv web portal.

In his letter Kolakusic says that despite the "indisputable fact" that although he knows "several thousand people, I do not know one single person who has Covid-19."

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia more than 45,000 people have been infected with coronavirus and 530 people have died.

For Kolakusic, this is just about a "cold", which by the way has cost the lives of more than one million people worldwide, says Euroactive.

Many MEPs are unhappy because they cannot temporarily access the European Parliament both in Brussels or Strasbourg.

The cause of their disgruntlement is a possible decision by the parliament's leaders to temporarily close the central attendance register throughout November. That means that MEPs will not receive daily allowances which amount to €323 for each day spent in Brussels or Strasbourg. They can receive that allowance only if they confirm their attendance in the central register.

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020  - The Croatian Medical Chamber on Friday welcomed the Health Ministry's initiative to establish call centres for tracing contacts of COVID-19 patients and suggested hiring over 1,200 medical staff registered with the Employment Service for contact tracing.

As a first step, the Chamber suggests that call centres at public health institutes hire over 1,200 nondoctors who are awaiting internship for contact tracing.

This month, due to the sudden surge in the number of COVID patients, the contact tracing system is bursting at the seams, so the Chamber welcomes Minister Vili Beros's initiative for urgently establishing call centres to step up contact tracing.

An efficient system of testing, tracing and isolating contacts is a prerequisite for establishing as normal a life as possible without the need to impose the strictest measures, the Medical Chamber said.

According to their proposal, non-doctors and non-medical staff would undergo the necessary training before being hired to work at public health institute call centres under epidemiologists' supervision.

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - Doctors and nurses at Zagreb's KB Dubrava hospital held a protest rally on Friday because the hospital would be fully converted into an institution for the treatment of COVID positive patients.

Ivana Suton, the representative of the Nurses' Union at the hospital, said that the protest was not organised by any of the unions but by staff gathering spontaneously to express their discontent over the difficult situation considering the large influx of patients and the shortage of staff.

The protesters were also addressed by Silvio Basic, the new chairman of the hospital's management board and state secretary at the Ministry of Health. He said later that the protesters had drawn his attention to the problems troubling them, such as care for their own health and the health of patients, and the lack of information.

Basic said that all 80 or so patients not suffering from COVID would be transferred to other hospitals across the city so that KB Dubrava could become a COVID hospital when necessary, which would depend on the number of new cases.

Responding to a reporter's remark that this was precisely why the staff were protesting, because they did not want the hospital to become a COVID institution, Basic said he sympathised with them. "We are seeing this disease for the first time, no one is trained to treat it and, of course, people are scared. But we must be aware as medical workers that we have taken on this risk."

Basic said that efforts were being made to ensure the sufficient number of staff. "Five anaesthesiologists have arrived today, and four more pulmonologists are coming in the afternoon. More nurses are also coming. This is a dynamic process," he said, adding that the hospital had enough ventilators.

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, of 9,287 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia, 30% of them, that is 2,772, have returned positive, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team stated on Friday.

Friday was the second consecutive day with more than 2,700 cases after on Thursday the daily tally of the new cases was 2,776.

In the last 24 hours 20 COVID patients have died, bringing the death toll to 531.

There are now 15,106 active cases, including 1,027 patients who are receiving hospital treatment, and of them 74 are placed on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 46,547 people have tested for positive for the novel virus and of them 30,910 have recovered.

Currently, 29,098 people are self-isolating.

Since the onset of the epidemic, Croatia has conducted 485,281 tests.