ZAGREB, 23 Jan 2022 - Over the last week, the number of primary and secondary school students infected with coronavirus increased by 67.5%, and it consequently made the number of students self-isolating skyrocket by 118%.

Last Monday, there were 7,095 positive children, while the numbers increased to 11,885 on last Friday, and this rise is ascribed to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

This past Friday, 184 schools out of a total of 1,313 schools in Croatia, had online classes.

Share of positive pupils in daily caseloads continues to be 15%

The Education Ministry explains that the more daily caseloads of the infection in the general population, the more pupils get infected, however, all the time a share of the positive students in the caseloads continues to be roughly 15%.

Over the last week, the number of positive primary school children jumped 88.5% to 4,118 positive cases registered on Friday.

The ministry said that there would be no state-level online classes because there were schools without any case of the infection, and therefore, it is up to local authorities to assess the situation in their communities and to decide on whether children can go to school or whether they should switch to virtual learning.

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ZAGREB, 22 Jan 2022 - Commenting on the average pay in Croatia having increased from HRK 5,642 (€750) at the start of his government's term to HRK 7,333 (€975), PM Andrej Plenković said in a Twitter post on Saturday Croatia had weathered the COVID-19 crisis.

"With our GDP growing strongly, jobs having been kept and public debt being reduced at a fast rate, we have overcome the COVID-19 crisis," the PM said.

He added that now, with reforms and secured EU funds, Croatia was about to achieve even faster growth and a better life for its citizens.

According to the national statistical office, the average pay in Croatia in November 2021 was HRK 7,333 while at the start of the current government's term, in October 2016, it stood at HRK 5,642.

(€1 = HRK 7.52)

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 22 Jan 2022 - A total of 10,701 new COVID cases have been detected by PCR tests in Croatia in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of active cases to 64,097, and 35 people have died from coronavirus, the national COVID response team reported on Saturday.

A total of 1,805 patients are hospitalised, including 199 on ventilators.

A total of 47,006 people are now self-isolating.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia in late February 2020, a total of 869,965 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered and 13,371 people have died from the infection, while 792,497 have recovered, including 8,239 in the past 24 hours.

So far 4,095,372 people have been tested for the virus.

The current vaccination rate is 56.37% of the total population, or 67.10% of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 22 Jan 2022 - Immunologist Zlatko Trobonjača, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka, said on Friday that although the Omicron variant of the virus seemed to cause milder symptoms of COVID-19 than previous variants, it was still to early to relax anti-epidemic restrictions.

Calling for caution, the doctor said in his interview with the national broadcaster (HTV), that there had been nearly 17,000 new daily cases of the infection on Friday, while the hospital admission numbers had fallen to some extent.

He explained that the new variant mostly infects the upper respiratory tract and therefore it spreads faster, while, on the other side, it seems to be causing milder symptoms of the disease.

Trobonjača went on to say that the Omicron epidemic has been lasting just about 20 days, and that it is a short period to make conclusions whether this variant of the virus is not dangerous.

We must wait for some time and see what consequences the spread of the Omicron can produce for health, before giving a thought to the relaxation of the restrictions, the professor said.

The level of the collective immunity which is being acquired through vaccination, immunisation and also through recovery from the disease will put an end to this virus eventually, he said.

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January the 22nd, 2022 - The director of the covid ward of KB Dubrava in Zagreb, Prof Bruno Barsic has stated that with the emergence of the highly infectious but far milder variant of the novel coronavirus, Omicron, only two measures make any sense. The rest are quite pointless.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Prof Bruno Barsic of Dubrava Hospital's covid ward pointed out to Index that because of the Omicron variant, we have a large number of infected people, but the pressure on hospitals isn't what it was. He stressed that Omicron patients aren't putting any pressure on the hospital and hoped that it would remain like that.

From Thursday the 27th of January, wearing masks in the United Kingdom will no longer be mandatory, working from home will no longer be officially recommended, and covid certificates (NHS covid passes) will no longer be required to enter nightclubs and partake in certain larger gatherings, according British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was recently busted for having parties during the harsh UK lockdown and is being pressured to step down.

The abolition of covid certificates is also being seriously considered in Israel, where Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman has risen up against their continued use. He said that they have no health purposes and that they contribute to creating even more issues and panic.

Cyrille Cohen, one of the Israeli government's vaccination advisers and head of the immunology department at Bar Ilan University, told UnHerd yesterday that covid certificates had become "irrelevant" now Omicron is dominant, and that he expected them to be abolished soon.

“When it comes to the Omicron variant, we don’t see virtually any difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and both can become infected by it more or less equally,” he said.

"That's logical. It's going in that direction. If you have 50 percent of those tested returning a positive result, then what's the use of testing? It seems logical to me that we are going in that direction in this country as well,'' said Prof Bruno Barsic.

He also commented on other epidemiological measures that are in force in this country and pointed out which ones he would drop if he was in charge. "Of all the measures, I would keep those that limit mass gatherings and wearing masks. So far, masks are very important because we can see how rapidly and easily Omicron spreads and infects people,'' he said.

Prof Bruno Barsic also stated that the elderly population still needs to be vaccinated.

"And that's it. It seems to me that the need for less measures is slowly emerging. But I'm not an expert in epidemiology, so I'd leave it to those who are to make those decisions,'' concluded Prof Bruno Barsic.

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ZAGREB, 21 Jan 2022 - A survey of COVID-19 testing in hospitals shows that tests came back positive almost three times more among the unvaccinated staff and that booster shots provide special protection, the Croatian Institute of Public Health said on Friday.

The survey was aimed at establishing the difference in positive PCR and rapid antigen tests between fully vaccinated healthcare workers and those not vaccinated.

The survey covered 1,371 workers in 12 hospitals, of whom 831 were vaccinated (60.61%) and 540  were unvaccinated, and 3.95 tests were done per worker on average.

Among those vaccinated, 57 were positive (6.86%), while among those not vaccinated, 101 were positive (18.7%).

Out of 475 workers who received a booster shot at least two weeks before being tested, 24 were positive (5.77%), while out of 265 who did not receive it, 30 were positive (11.32%).

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ZAGREB, 21 Jan 2022 - A total of 11,114 new COVID cases have been detected by PCR tests in Croatia in the past 24 hours while a further 5,556 cases have been detected with Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) bringing the total daily caseload to 16,670, and 35 people have died from COVID, the Croatian COVID response team reported on Friday.

There are currently 61,671 active cases of the infection with coronavirus in Croatia, including 1,799 hospitalized patients, 193 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia in late February 2020, a total of 859,264 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered and 13,335 people have died from the infection, while 784,258 have recovered including 8,601 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 41,682 people are now self-isolating.

To date, a total of 4,074,484 tests have been conducted, including 21,253 in the past 24 hours.

As of Thursday, a total of 5,021,663 doses of a vaccine had been administered with the vaccination rate being 56.34% of the total population or 67.06% of the adult population.

A total of 2,286,291 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 2,193,513 are fully vaccinated which is 64.50% of the adult population.

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January the 21st, 2022 - Should the Croatian covid certificate system be scrapped? With all eyes now on 2022's summer tourist season and the arrival of the much more mild but highly infectious Omicron variant, questions are hanging in the air.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, at a recently held coalition meeting, the situation with the spread of coronavirus, the new Omicron variant, and all of the accompanying epidemiological measures, including the issue of the Croatian covid certificate were discussed.

"What is good is that the Prime Minister comes and listens to us every Tuesday, and new proposals are always on the table. I talked publicly recently at the coalition meeting about what Israel has done, I think Israel is doing a good job as far as the coronavirus pandemic is concerned, I think we're doing a good job too, but it's precisely because I think we're doing a good job that we need to rethink some things. We have 16 thousand infected people, and yet hospitalisations are drastically dropping, the number of positive results among those tested is still growing, I don't think there is any need to test people anymore. As soon as over 50 percent of those being tested return positive results, there is no longer any need for testing.

I'm going to be open now, I always speak responsibly, but I always try to speak with common sense as well. We also have to think about the upcoming summer tourist season. We now need to simply revoke the Croatian covid certificate. They should have been adopted when they were adopted, but now is the time to abolish them, I suggested that at the meeting of the ruling coalition,'' said Dario Hrebak, president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) for HTV's Otvoreno (Open).

Asked whether or not the ruling party, HDZ, was ready to support this proposal, Josip Boric, vice president of the HDZ MPs' Club, said he had not been to the meeting and did not know what the discussions were, but has always listened to what the Civil Protection Directorate advised and said.

PM Andrej Plenkovic has since stated that the Croatian covid certificate system will remain in place for now, with Beros adding that the vaccination rate among the domicile population is still much too low to consider removing any epidemiological restrictions.

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ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - Due to its low vaccination rate, Croatia, for now, cannot consider lifting some of the COVID restrictions, and medical professionals continue to recommend compliance with the epidemiological measures in place to contain the virus, Health Minister Vili Beroš said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

He was commenting on plans by countries such as the United Kingdom and Israel, which have high vaccination rates, to lift the restrictions and the COVID pass mandate. He warned that in Croatia, a considerable number of people aged 75 and over were unvaccinated.

Despite the surge in the number of new infections, for now, there has been no increase in the number of COVID hospitalizations, so health care is also available to non-COVID patients, the health minister said.

"Today, 1,792 infected persons are being treated in hospitals, four fewer than yesterday. The COVID bed occupancy rate is 53.4 percent, which allows for other patients to be provided with the necessary health care as well," Beroš said.

Croatia today registered a record 17,489 new COVID cases, with the PCR test positivity rate reaching 51.44 percent and the rapid antigen test positivity rate 18.82 percent. The number of COVID patients on ventilators today is 195, nine fewer than on Wednesday. 

Beroš said that 18.63 percent of the total population had received an additional vaccine dose.

He noted that people being admitted to hospitals with the Omicron variant of the virus were mostly elderly and unvaccinated with other underlying conditions.

He said that the latest data published by the European Medicines Agency showed that mRNA COVID vaccines were safe during pregnancy.

The head of the national COVID response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that the travel ban on arrivals from South Africa and other African countries where the Omicron variant first appeared had been lifted given that this variant has become dominant in Croatia and Europe.

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ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been present in Croatia for several weeks now, but it "seems slightly less dangerous than was previously the case," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in his opening remarks at a regular cabinet meeting on Thursday.

"The number of new infections is not proportionately reflected in the number of hospitalizations and those placed on ventilators," Plenković said, adding that this was why the Omicron variant seemed less dangerous.

He, however, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was continuing to spread and that Omicron was spreading faster and was more infectious.

"I call on the people who have not been vaccinated yet to get vaccinated, and those who have to take a booster dose. Over 700,000 people have so far received a booster dose," the prime minister said.

Stressing the importance of trust in science and medicine, he said that the only way to protect oneself from getting infected with the novel coronavirus was a combination of vaccination and compliance with epidemiological measures.

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