ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 2,208 tests conducted for coronavirus in Croatia, 16.7% (367) have returned positive, and another 62 COVID patients have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 12,043, Croatia's COVID crisis management team reported on Monday.

There are currently 19,570 active cases of infection in the country, and of them, 2,178 are hospitalized patients, including 268 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of infection with the novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, 675,730 people have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, and of them, 644,117 have recovered to date, including 3,341 in the last 24 hours.

So far, 2,242,791 residents have got vaccinated and the rate of fully vaccinated adults stands at 61.59%.

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, 20 Dec 2021 - Nikola Grmoja of the Bridge party said on Sunday they had collected a sufficient number of signatures for their referendum petitions for the transfer of the powers of the national COVID-19 crisis management team to the parliament and the abolishment of COVID certificates.

This opposition party started collecting signatures on 4  December at over 1,200 venues across Croatia, and the two-week deadline for the initiative expired at midnight on 18 December.

For a referendum campaign to be successful, its organizers must collect the signatures of 10% of the electorate or 368,446 signatures.

Grmoja, however, stopped short of specifying the number of collected signatures, and in his statement to Hina on Sunday evening, he said that they were still gathering data and information from the ground and from local teams that had collected signatures in the last 14 days.

The results of the referendum campaign of this Opposition party are expected to be known on Wednesday.

On Saturday, the last day of the campaign, Grmoja said that data on the turnout from all signature-collecting points should be known by Wednesday, claiming that in the last two days of the campaign, on Friday and Saturday, the turnout was excellent.

Last Wednesday, he told a news conference that they had collected around 300,000 signatures, and in a bid to encourage as many people as possible to sign the petition, senior Bridge members joined the party activists on the ground collecting signatures.

In the event that the referendum petition had been supported by the required number of signatures, the questions proposed for the referendum could be also tested by the Constitutional Court.

President Milanović on the referendum

On 6 December, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said that he wouldn't sign the Bridge party's referendum petition for the abolition of COVID certificates because he thought he "isn't here to root for anyone", and he told the government and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party that they had brought this on themselves.

"I have said I will not sign it, but what I'm saying carries at least as much weight as some signature. I believe the government and the HDZ are responsible for signatures being collected now for amending the Constitution so that what is clear to everyone, except to the HDZ and Plenković, could become clear to them as well," said Milanović.

Commenting on the referendum on that occasion, Milanović said it consisted of two parts, the first of which was a matter of constitutionality with regard to Article 17, or cases when it is decided on a temporary suspension of fundamental human rights and freedoms. According to him, the first part of the referendum will depend on whether enough signatures are collected, and if there are enough of them, then the referendum will likely succeed because those in favor of the crisis management team running Croatia, and they're about 25% of them, he says, will simply not cast their vote or their number will be insufficient.

"I think the second part of the referendum, which deals with legislative changes, is not very well though-out and... the Constitutional Court may not allow those referendum questions," he said then.

Four opposition groups say they never supported Bridge's referendum initiative

Last Thursday, MPs from the Green-Left Bloc, Centre/GLAS, Peasant Party /Workers' Front, and Istrian Democratic Party groups strongly denied the statement by the Bridge's Vice President Grmoja that he had received guarantees from all opposition parties that they would support Bridge's referendum petition.

"That statement is a complete lie," says a joint statement signed by the leaders of the four opposition groups, stressing that these parties "neither participated in the meeting on the referendum initiative nor pledged their support in any way."

"It is unclear why MP Grmoja told such lies. ... Some members of our groups have warned Bridge MPs several times that the referendum initiative will further divide citizens, mobilize anti-vax sentiment, help spread fake news and conspiracy theories, and potentially contribute to the escalation of violence among citizens," the joint statement said.

The statement was released the day after in the national parliament Bridge deputies entered into a conflict with Opposition lawmakers from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and other center-left groups on the topic of vaccination against coronavirus.

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ZAGREB, 19 Dec, 2021 - Croatia has registered 1,936 new coronavirus cases and 51 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Sunday.

Currently, there are 22,606 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,167 infected persons receiving hospital treatment and 269 of them are on ventilators.

A total of 22,622 people are self-isolating.

A total of 3,645,554 persons have been tested to date, including 6,973 in the last 24 hours.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first infection with the SARS CoV-2 virus was confirmed in the country, 675,363 people have been registered as having contracted the new virus, of whom 11,981 have died.

A total of 640,776 people have recovered, including 3,214 in the last 24 hours.

65.86% of adult population vaccinated

As of Saturday, 4,542,083 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 55.25 per cent of the total population, or 65.86 per cent of the adult population, having been vaccinated.

A total of 2,242,262 people have received at least one dose and 2,088,816 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 61.53 per cent of the adult population.

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December the 19th, 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic has spoken out about plans regarding the unfolding epidemiological situation which is being heavily influenced across Europe by the new Omicron variant of concern (VOC), touching on NYE celebrations, masses at Christmas and so on.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, at the ceremony marking the final completion of the demining of Zadar County, a certificate of complete exclusion from the mine suspected area of ​​the county was formally handed over, writes Dnevnik.hr.

The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, Zadar County Prefect Bozidar Longin and Director of the Civil Protection Directorate Damir Trut, who held a presentation entitled: "Solving the mine problem of Zadar County."

"Strength, will, skill and courage," Longin said, adding that eight deminers had tragically died during the demining process.

“We'll remember all those who worked on demining, on a huge task and a job that was done successfully. "Today, it was a pleasure to submit a certificate on the mine-cleared area,'' Davor Bozinovic said. "This is the moment when we remember all the victims," ​​said Bozinovic, adding that the last person killed was in 2016, and a child also died in 2014.

"We hope to clean everything up by 2026," the minister said, concluding that seven to eight counties remain with mine issues which need to be resolved. "There are a few mines left in Split-Dalmatia, Sibenik-Knin, mostly in forest and mountainous areas, as well as where battles were fought," he said, recalling a situation where police rescued migrants from mine danger not so long ago.

Davor Bozinovic handed over the symbolic "last mine" to the mayor of Pakostane, Milivoje Kurtov, because the last demining work was carried out in that area.

Turning to coronavirus and anti-epidemic measures... 

As for the New Year, Davor Bozinovic said that at this moment in time they are primarily focused on monitoring the unfolding situation with the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"There's been exponential growth, which is attributed to the new Omicron variant. The Delta variant also spread much more rapidly than the previous strain, and Omicron is now spreading much more quickly than Delta did. We have a mix of these two variants of the virus and we have to take the appropriate precations as a result of it,'' Davor Bozinovic stated, citing the issues other European countries such as the United Kingdom are currently facing.

He pointed out that in Dalmatia there is a growth of newly infected across all four counties. "We're asking people to please stay outdoors as much as possible. Enclosed spaces are a big danger. We've had several cases across Europe where Omicron has easily infected people indoors,'' the minister warned.

“South Africa has a much younger population and it’s summer there. We know that then the virus spreads less. We're now entering the winter period, more and more people will be spending a lot of time indoors and it's extremely important that everyone takes care of themselves and doesn't underestimate the situation at hand,'' he warned.

He said that new anti-epidemic measures have now been adopted and given the situation across Europe, and at the minute they cannot make concessions. "If the numbers don't keep on increasing and if the trend of a slight decline continues - then we can talk. All I can say now is please be irresponsible because nobody knows what will happen in the next few days,'' he said, pointing out that no one, not even experts, can say for sure what will happen.

"The fact is that we have a certain number of cases and judging by everything we've learned so far, it's more realistic to expect that there are more cases than less," Davor Bozinovic said about the new Omicron variant. "We need to wait and see if these big European numbers lead to more hospitalisations," the minister said.

He said that the best suggestion is for the New Year to be celebrated outdoors in as much as is possible and that those who are religious watch the mass when it is broadcast on television.

"It's safer for everyone," Davor Bozinovic concluded.

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ZAGREB, 18 Dec, 2021 - Croatia has registered 3,487 new coronavirus cases and 51 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Saturday.

Currently, there are 23,935 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,154 infected persons receiving hospital treatment and 283 of them are on ventilators.

A total of 23,714 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first infection with the SARS CoV-2 virus was confirmed in the country, 673,427 people have been registered as having contracted the new virus, of whom 11,930 have died while 637,562 have recovered, including 3,432 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 3,638,581 persons have been tested to date, including 10,836 in the last 24 hours.

As of Friday, 4,519,310 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 55.21 per cent of the total population, or 65.81 per cent of the adult population, having been vaccinated. A total of 2,240,403 people have received at least one dose and 2,082,035 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 61.34 per cent of the adult population.

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December the 17th, 2021 - A group of Sisak residents were left disgruntled and likely with weakened immune systems after attempting to do their civic duty and get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus but being told to go home after two hours standing in the cold and rain.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a rather embarrassing situation occurred regarding vaccines for some Sisak residents recently when coronavirus vaccines ran out at one of the vaccination points on Saturday. This means that a good part of the people who came home for their second dose went home unvaccinated, as was told by an angry Sisak resident. The County Public Health Institute explained what happened.

Some people who came to get vaccinated at the mass vaccination point near in Sisak received a cold shower instead of their coronavirus vaccination. After more than two hours of waiting in the rain and cold, they were told the vaccine was gone.

"I was waiting for two hours only to finally come to the door and they tell me - there are no more vaccines. I didn't want to leave until they brought out a vaccine for me,'' a bitter young man from Sisak, who was supposed to receive his second dose on Saturday, told Dnevnik.hr. He arrived at the time he was given to come and be vaccinated, but it made no difference as he went home with still just the first dose having been injected.

"I told the lady who was vaccinating people there that they had written to me telling me to come that day. I had been waiting in the rain, wind and cold only to find out that there would be no vaccine. If I got my first dose on November the 13th, how can it be that ''my'' second dose wasn't waiting for me on the date they wrote down themselves? She told me it's not her fault, alright, but am I to blame either?'' asked this irritated Sisak local rhetorically.

Vaccination was eventually postponed

The epilogue of the story, says the young man, is that the vaccine for them will arrive - only next weekend.

"About ten of us are still standing here, I said to the epidemiologist - come on, here we are, just ten of us, write down our names, surnames and phone numbers and let us know when the vaccine comes for us. Tell these people to come at 08:00, 08:15 (it starts at nine otherwise) and we'll come. She said she can't do that. I said you see you can help us, but you don't want to. One of the people said the vaccine is coming on Wednesday, the other said they don't know if there will be a vaccine until Saturday,'' he concluded.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 16 Dec 2021 - EU leaders on Thursday underlined the importance of vaccination in the fight against COVID-19, including a booster shot given the worrying Omicron variant.

The vaccination of all and receiving a booster shot is crucial and urgently necessary, according to European Council conclusions on the pandemic.

EU heads of state or government said it is crucial to overcome the suspiciousness about vaccination and to fight vaccine disinformation.

As to travel restrictions, the European Council called for coordinated efforts to respond to the situation based on available scientific evidence, and for imposing travel restrictions based on objective criteria, without undermining the single market or disproportionately disrupting free movement within the EU.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told the press COVID certificates facilitated free movement this past summer and that this helped Croatia to record 90% of the numbers logged in the record tourism year 2019.

EU leaders called for the updated travel recommendations within the EU that the Commission published last month to be updated as soon as possible.

The Commission recommended a person-based approach, i.e. that a person with a valid digital COVID certificate should not be subjected to additional restrictions such as testing or quarantine.

Persons without a certificate could be required to get tested before or upon arrival.

The Commission also recommended that the certificates be valid nine months after the last vaccination.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

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ZAGREB, 16 Dec 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 11,713 tests conducted for coronavirus in Croatia, 3,765 (32%) have turned out to be positive, and 46 more COVID patients have died, raising the death toll to 11,825, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Currently, there are 24,082 active cases of the infection in Croatia, with 2,253 of them in hospital, including 286 patients placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, 666,162 people have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, and of them, 630,255 have recovered so far, including 3,346 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

During the vaccine rollout plan, 2,235,161 persons have been given at least a jab, and 60.85% of adults have fully been vaccinated.

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ZAGREB, 16 Dec 2021 - If Croatia does not prepare for the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the infectious disease is likely to claim several thousand more lives, academician Ivan Đikić, a Croatian scientist who works in Germany, said in a letter to PM Andrej Plenković and Health Minister Vili Beroš on Thursday.

Calling on the government to acquaint the public with its future strategy, Đikić expressed concern about the gravity of the situation and the danger of a fifth wave of the pandemic that could claim a large number of lives in Croatia.

Đikić said that he received on a daily basis queries from concerned citizens who wonder how they should behave in the current situation, who should get a booster dose, if the booster dose protects against the Omicron variant, which tests are safe, etc.

50 COVID-related deaths a day very high figure

It is a fact that Croatia is close to the top of the EU ranking in terms of the number of coronavirus deaths per million people during the fourth wave, and this sounds the alarm and calls for urgent preventive action, he said.

"Around 50 people die of COVID-19 in Croatia on a daily basis, which is a very high figure. If we do not prepare early enough for the fifth wave, we are set to lose several thousand more citizens during the fifth wave," he said, calling on the PM and the health minister to present accurate data and risks related to the Omicron variant and inform citizens about the government's future strategy.

Omicron dangerous variant, booster dose contributes to protection against it

Noting that the Omicron variant is a dangerous variant, two to three times more contagious than the Delta variant, Đikić called on Plenković and Beroš to ensure fast detection and monitoring of the Omicron variant, present a strategy to prevent the fifth wave of the pandemic, and encourage all citizens above 18 to get a booster dose.

Currently available data shows that additional vaccination has a significant positive effect and contributes to protection also against the Omicron variant, Đikić said, calling for launching a more serious vaccination campaign so as to achieve a significant level of collective protection and prevent excessive pressure on hospitals and fatalities.

He also said the Health Ministry should provide accurate and clear information on testing for coronavirus, describing as wrong messages that suggest citizens should get tested for cellular immunity as the best indicator of whether one should get a booster dose.

According to available data, a cellular immunity test based on which an official decision would be made on additional vaccination has not been approved anywhere in the world, he said, but added that there have been cases of citizens testing positive for cellular immunity and being advised not to get a booster dose after which they contracted the disease.

Đikić also called on the government not to allow profiteering related to coronavirus tests, warning that wrongly interpreted COVID tests can lead citizens to believe that they are protected even though they are not, thus causing the already complex epidemiological situation to worsen.

Warning of numerous cases of scientifically unfounded statements in the media, made by individual scientists, including members of the government's scientific council, "to which neither the Health Ministry nor the government had reacted timely", Đikić said that this caused unnecessary damage and undermined citizens' trust in state institutions.

"Respond competently, clearly, and timely to scientifically unfounded statements in the media," he said.

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December the 16th, 2021 - Croatian children over the age of five can now be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in the City of Zagreb. Here is how and where.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, competent school doctors will be responsible for vaccinating Croatian children up to the age of twelve, and their parents will also be able to refer their children for vaccination against coronavirus via the Terminko application (app). Preschool children will be vaccinated by selected doctors (pediatricians or GPs/family physicians).

The Croatian Institute of Public Health especially recommends that Croatian children belonging to vulnerable groups, such as those who suffer from chronic illness, are immunocompromised or live with a person categorised as the above be vaccinated.

From now on, all interested parents will be able to vaccinate their children over the age of five against the virus. Parents of children up to the age of 12 can be referred to be vaccinated by their parents via the aforementioned Terminko application, after which they will be vaccinated by a doctor at the school medicine clinic in charge of the school the child attends.

Parents who want to vaccinate their preschool children can now do so by contacting their chosen pediatrician or family medicine doctor. Children between the ages of 12 and 18 can, as before, be vaccinated at any of the mass vaccination points located in the City of Zagreb.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the vaccination of Croatian children and other young people who have an increased risk of developing a more severe clinical picture should they contract the virus due to chronic illness or some form of therapy which might weaken their immune system is especially recommended.

Vaccination is recommended for both children and young people who share a household with people with chronic diseases, as mentioned, as such people have a much higher risk of developing more severe forms of the disease. Vaccination against coronavirus is also recommended for children who spend longer periods of time in various forms of collective accommodation, which includes overnight stays.

The detailed work schedule of the teams of the School and Adolescent Medicine Service in Zagreb can be found here.

For all additional questions, parents can contact the competent school doctor by e-mail according to the above schedule of school and adolescent medicine clinics of the Andrija Stampar Institute.

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