ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - In Croatia, 11,343 persons have tested positive in PCR tests and an additional 6,146 have been positive in rapid antigen tests in the last 24 hours, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Thus, 17,489 cases set a new record after there were 16,017 new COVID-19 cases in the country on Wednesday.

Currently, there are 59,193 active cases, including 1,792 hospitalized COVID patients, of whom 195 are placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of infection with the novel virus on 25 February 2020, there have been 848,150 cases of infection so far. Of them, 775,657 patients have recovered, including 8,315 in the last 24 hours.

The death toll has climbed by another 43 fatalities in the last 24 hours to 13,300.

To date, 64.43% of adults have fully been vaccinated.

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January the 20th, 2022 - The emergence of the far more infectious but apparently far more mild strain of the novel coronavirus, Omicron, has altered the course of the pandemic for many countries who are now opting for much different measures which resemble the ''old normal''. Prof Ivica Luksic of KB Dubrava has also noted that this variant is changing things.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the wave of the epidemic caused by the Omicron variant is still resulting in a large number of new infections, but there are indications that something is changing in the course of the epidemic.

"Over more recent days, we've had a continuous number of patients. We aren't experiencing significant growth, but we don't have a continuation of decline either. At KB Dubrava, we have about 70-80 coronavirus patients and about 20 of them are in the intensive care unit,'' said Prof Ivica Luksic, the director of the Dubrava Clinical Hospital, for Dnevnik.

He pointed out that apparently something in the course of the coronavirus pandemic is indeed changing.

"We have an enormous increase in new infections, but fortunately it is not accompanied by an increase in patients. Obviously, Omicron has changed the course of the pandemic, and we're adapting to these new circumstances within the hospital system," he said.

Regarding the age structure of patients requiring hospital treatment for their more severe clinical pictures, Prof Ivica Luksic said that the patients who are hospitalised are mostly older people and those who are unvaccinated.

"In the fourth wave of the pandemic, there was an increase in younger patients, those who were unvaccinated, and now we're returning to the situation in which we mainly have older people needing treatment," Prof Ivica Luksic said.

Asked if he could confirm that Omicron is mostly retained in the upper respiratory tract and doesn't descend further down into the lungs, Prof Ivica Luksic said it was too early for more serious conclusions to be firmly made, but that according to the clinical pictures of some of the first hospitalised Omicron patients, it does appear milder than it was before.

“You could say it’s going in the direction that the upper respiratory system is affected more often,” he said.

Asked if Omicron was the beginning of the end, Luksic said that its emergence has accelerated some things in any case.

"It's to be hoped that Omicron may have accelerated the end or indeed be end of the pandemic and the transition to the endemic phase of the disease," responded Luksic, emphasising the continued importance of vaccination.

"There are currently no patients who have received two doses of the vaccine or received a booster among those admitted to hospital," he told HRT.

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ZAGREB, 19 Jan 2022 - A total of 5,590 new COVID-19 infections have been identified in the last 24 hours using rapid antigen tests, while PCR tests have identified 10,427 infections, which puts the total number of infected persons at 16,017.

Rapid antigen tests were used in the last 24 hours to test 22,344 persons, and 25% of the tests came back positive, officials at the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Data from the national coronavirus crisis management team show that on Wednesday Croatia saw a record high number of new infections, 10,427, as well as 45 COVID-related deaths.

Previously the highest number of infections, identified with PCR tests, was reported last Wednesday, 9,894.

Croatia currently has 56,208 active cases of the disease, including 1,796 hospitalised patients, of whom 204 are on ventilators.

ZAGREB, 19 Jan 2022 - Croatia registered a new record in daily COVID numbers on Wednesday with 10,427 cases, while 45 people have died as a consequence of the virus, the national COVID response team reported.

The latest number is based on PCR tests taken and does not include Rapid Antigen Tests. The last time a record number was detected was last Wednesday with 9,894 cases.

There are currently 56,208 active cases, including 1,796 hospitalised patients, 204 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Croatia, a total of 836,807 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered, 13,257 people have died. while a total of 767,342 have recovered, including 3,702 in the past 24 hours.

Currently, there are 31,730 people self-isolating.

To date, a total of 4,031,182 tests have been conducted, including 20,292 in the past 24 hours.

As of 18 January, a total of 4,990,195 doses of a vaccine had been administered, which is 56.27% of the total population or 66.98% of the adult population.

A total of 2,283,377 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 2,188,899 are fully vaccinated, which is 64.37% of the adult population.

January the 18th, 2022 - Epidemiologist Bernard Kaic has hinted at possible epidemiological measure alterations in Croatia, stating that the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus behaves like a ''totally different virus''.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Omicron seems to be able to get around the immune systems of those who have had previous covid infections, but also in those who have been vaccinated against it. For example, among those who were registered as newly infected on Sunday, about 30 percent were vaccinated with two doses, and five percent with three (the third being their booster dose).

That said, those who have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and those who have earned their immunity naturally (by contracting and recovering from the disease) usually only have milder symptoms when they catch Omicron.

Bernard Kaic from the Croatian National Institute of Public Health has emphasised that the Omicron variant seems to successfully avoid previously acquired immunity because it behaves almost like an entirely new virus of its own.

He also pointed out that his colleagues from the field recently sent him the example of a young man who fell ill just one month after first contracting the virus and becoming unwell.

"We'll probably need to change the recommendation to get vaccinated earlier after having the first illness, let's say three months after a person has their first illness," Bernard Kaic told Dnevnik.hr.

"Those who have contracted and recovered from coronavirus should be vaccinated after being ill, regardless of whether they've been vaccinated before or not," said epidemiologist Bernard Kaic, who added that when it comes to Omicron, it appears much harder to remain uninfected.

Alemka Markotic, the director of Zagreb's ''Dr. Fran Mihaljevic'' Clinic for Infectious Diseases explained that the existing coronavirus vaccines don't offer protection against Omicron infection in a high percentage, but they do up to around 30 percent. They do however offer a far higher level of protection against serious clinical pictures requiring hospitalisation, and against death.

Alemka Markotic stated that two doses of the vaccine protect up to 65 and more percent, and the third booster offers protection over 80 to 90 percent - from more severe forms of illness and death.

''The unvaccinated are the reservoirs of new variants of the novel coronavirus, which dictate the development of the epidemic,'' explained Professor Vlahovicek.

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ZAGREB, 17 Jan 2022 - Croatia detected 1,397 new COVID cases in the past 24 hours while another 39 people died as a consequence of the virus, the national COVID response team reported on Monday.

There are 48,441 active cases, including 1,763 hospitalised patients, 221 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Croatia, a total of 818,832 cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered, 13,157 people have died while a total of 757,234 have recovered, including 8,416 in the past 24 hours.

Currently there are 24,211 people self-isolating.

To date, a total of 3,994,122 tests have been conducted, including 3,662 in the past 24 hours.

As of 16 January, a total of 4,963,468 doses of a vaccine had been administered, which is 56.20% of the total population or 66.91% of the adult population.

A total of 2,280,700 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine while 2,184,484 are fully vaccinated, which is 64.24% of the adult population.

January the 17th, 2022 - Croatian GPs are beginning to test with rapid antigen tests as of today. Some are more than ready for the move, some are already carrying out this type of coronavirus testing, and some are far from prepared.

As Index vijesti writes, throughout Osijek-Baranja County in particular, everything needed for this is being organised at 70 different locations, as was reported by HRT.

"On January the 13th, we received an instruction from the Ministry of Health about rapid testing intended for all Croatian GPs, it also included information about the protection of preschool children. It stated that all Croatian GPs should be included in the testing. It is recommended that this be at the beginning or end of their working hours in order in order to try to avoid risky contacts,'' said Dr. Justinija Steiner, the director of the Osijek-Baranja County Health Centre.

"We'll do it all as we carried out all of the tasks related to coronavirus, including vaccination and treatment of covid and chronic disease. We managed all that, we're tired and not happy with this new load of work, but we'll do it all," said prof. dr. sc. Hrvoje Tiljak.

Rapid antigen testing will be done by the employees of the Krapina-Zagorje County Health Centre, given that 5,000 rapid antigen tests have arrived at the clinics there.

"I think this will further burden Croatian GPs who are still overwhelmed with their current work and all of the administration," said Nada Dogan, MD. spec. obit. med., director of the Krapina-Zagorje County Health Centre. The organisation of this new way of doing things, as they say, is the biggest challenge of all, and there have already been a few unwanted and sometimes awkward situations.

"Patients have already been coming here, and they have walked in and been waiting in the waiting room among non-covid patients,'' complained Dr. Dubravko Leskovar.

Some Croatian GPs are still indignant about the entire thing and expect clear instructions on the matter.

"I don't know what will happen from Monday on, I haven't received any rapid antigen tests since Friday, I don't have the space or the time to start doing this. There's also absolutely no expert explanation or instruction from the epidemiologists," said Natasa Ban Toskic, president of the Croatian Family Coordination medicine (KoHOM).

Bernard Kaic agrees that this is a major project.

"Health centres need to (the ministry must somehow help doctors in organising this) set aside a certain time for people with coronavirus symptoms to come who need to be tested and separate them from those people without any symptoms who also need a test, and separate both of these groups from all those who don't need a test at all. This is a big organisational project and Croatian GPs simply cannot do it alone,'' believes Bernard Kaic, head of the Epidemiology Service of the CNIPH.

Health Minister Vili Beros: So far, 995 out of 5,000 primary care practices have been carrying out rapid antigen testing.

Minister of Health Vili Beros said on Thursday that so far, 995 primary health care surgeries out of a total of 5,000 surgeries have been performing rapid antigen testing, and he called on them to respond to the needs of their patients due to the current emergency situation.

Rapid antigen testing has so far been performed by 370 GP practices, 558 dental clinics and 17 pediatric clinics. 125,000 tests have been done, Beros told reporters after the recent government session.

Responding to the protests and complaints of Croatian GPs up and down the country, Beros said that his task as a minister was to respond organisationally to the demands of the profession to expand this form of testing. "In the context of the pandemic and these new challenges, we simply thought it would be appropriate for patients to come to their own doctors for help," he says.

Hospitals are burdened with treating covid and non-covid patients and are still testing, so we can't ask them to increase their capacities in this segment. What we can do is enable all Croatian GPs to take care of the patients registered with them. I know that they're also overburdened, but we aren't living in normal times, a global pandemic has been declared and taking care of those suffering as a result of that is our primary task," Beros pointed out.

He believes that Croatian GPs could organise rapid antigen testing during the last hour of their working hours, rejecting claims that he was "at war with Croatian GPs"

"I'm at war with the virus, and they're my comrades-in-arms,'' Beros concluded.

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January the 16th, 2022 - A Croatian lawyer has been ordered to pay 10,000 kuna for refusing to disinfect his hands as the coronavirus pandemic continues and hand washing is part of the most basic of epidemiological measures. He also referred to the disinfectant on offer to him as ''poison''.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, before the start of a main hearing in court recently, the judge told those present to put their things away and spray their hands with the available disinfectant, but the prosecutor's Croatian lawyer said he did not want to do so, according to a report from Nacional.

The bizarre situation has also been also described in the official minutes of the court:

“Next, the trial judge instructs the same lawyer (the prosecutor's lawyer, op.a.) to use his hand sanitiser, to which the same lawyer replies that there is no other - his disinfectant, without spraying his hands with the disinfectant offered to him by the judge, before saying "we aren't going to shake hands and I don't want to use the poison offered to me" before requesting that the latter be entered in the minutes,;; it is written in the minutes.

The judge is the person who determines during the hearing what will be entered in the minutes. As such, he warned the Croatian lawyer who refused to disinfect his hands and stated that he "will not disinfect his hands because that disinfectant is poison", that he was behaving inappropriately in court and disobeying a court order before sending him out of court.

The lawyer refused to leave the courtroom, to which the judge ordered his associates to call a security guard who "within five minutes", as it is written in the minutes, removed the disobedient and oddly behaving lawyer from the courtroom.

According to the decision of the minutes, the Croatian lawyer in question was fined 10,000 kuna for his inappropriate behaviour for "disrespect, inappropriate treatment and disobedience to court orders, with personal audacity." The incident will also be reported to the Bar Association.

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January 15, 2022 - In the last 24 hours 8,958 coronavirus cases, out of 18,381 tests, and 35 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are 55,046 active cases, including 1,688 hospitalised patients, of whom 229 are on ventilators, while 25,990 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 811,703 coronavirus cases to date. The death toll is 13,073.

To date, 56.16% of the population has been vaccinated, including 66.87% of adults, of whom 64.17% fully.

January the 15th, 2022 - Why is it taking so long for Croatian covid tests to be completed? With endless waits, backlogs, followed by another wait for the results, things are tight as people scramble to get negative test results.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, while in Rijeka people come for Croatian covid tests and get their results more or less within 24 hours, in the City of Zagreb, Split and other larger cities, even when a person has symptoms of coronavirus infection, they're often waiting for a week to get in line for testing. As such, many symptomatic people end up coming out of self-isolation before a positive PCR test result confirming their active infection even arrives.

The problem with Croatian covid tests has been going on for months now, and over the last few weeks, under pressure from a growing number of coronavirus patients and symptomatic sufferers, it has become rather unsustainable.

What's the reason for such a long wait to get your hands on Croatian covid tests?

As they say for Novi list from the Croatian National Institute of Public Health, the high vaccination rate could be the reason for the better overall situation in Rijeka, meaning there is less of a rush to get tested because a higher percentage of people already have valid covid certificates, so they don't need to be tested for the virus to such an extent.

"There is crowding for tests due to the large number of new patients and their contacts. Obviously, these new patients have a lot of close contacts, and there are a lot of people who haven't been vaccinated, so if they have to go to public institutions, they need a valid COVID certificate, which they can get based on a negative PCR or RAT result. Numerous travellers also come to get tested. Three weeks ago, Italy introduced new rules that a negative PCR test result is required to enter the country, and some ski resorts also require it,'' explained Dijana Mayer, an epidemiologist at the CNIPH.

Most of the people needing tests aren't vaccinated, so they simply have to come for testing if they want to go pretty much anywhere, and there are also new variants that affect people who have already been vaccinated, but for various reasons they still have to be tested.

Crowds of would-be and returning skiers

Among those waiting in lines for Croatian covid tests, she added, are people who live here in Croatia who have returned from a foreign ski resort, and due to respiratory symptoms, coughs and runny noses, they now have to be tested.

“I don’t expect this trend to last for very long, but the issues surrounding Croatian covid tests could last for another two to three weeks. With the introduction of rapid antigen tests in primary care, this could go faster than it is now,'' assured Mayer, explaining that there is a very good situation in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, where there aren't waits for days like there currently is in Zagreb, which has a high vaccination rate.

"Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is very well vaccinated. In Split-Dalmatia County, where not that many people have been vaccinated, the situation with covid testing is even worse, because the people of Split are sent for testing to Makarska, Sinj or Trogir. Such a situation directly correlates with vaccination,'' noted Mayer.

Primorje-Gorski Kotar County doesn't have a waiting list for testing, whether it is PCR tests or rapid antigen tests, which have recently earned the same status when issuing COVID certificates.

“We've organised ourselves for these special circumstances in which certain organisational adjustments need to be made. Our cooperation with GPs is very good and all of those who receive referrals, whether it's for a rapid antigen test or for PCR testing, receive the results either on the same day or on the next day. Such an approach is our main task and we'll continue to work like this, and if necessary, we'll once again extend our working hours to 18:00, as we did last week at our test point in Mlaka, but now, due to less interest, we've returned to working until 13:00. We also occasionally notice fatigue in people who work doing these jobs, and we're part of a system that has a high exposure to infection, but we're continuing to work on the prevention of COVID-19,'' explained Prof. Dr. Vladimir Micovic in conversation with Novi list.

According to him, one of the key goals of timely coronavirus testing is to put patients into self-isolation and start treatment in time for when any symptoms of the disease appear, and thus ultimately reduce the pressure on the hospital system. The waiting lists for Croatian covid tests, while the most contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire across most of the world at the moment, are actually completely absurd.

In Pimorje-Gorski Kotar County, except at the main test point in Rijeka's Mlaka, people can be tested in all branches of the institute, and when it comes to rapid antigen testing, many private institutions, such as pharmacies and private health institutions, introduced this option back in autumn 2021.

"Rapid antigen tests have their value in proving the presence of the disease, but PCR testing is the gold standard, the final confirmation of the presence of the disease and, after all, the condition that European Union countries require for an EU COVID certificate to be valid," concluded Micovic.

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