ZAGREB, 28 Oct 2021 - The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) latest COVID map shows that Croatia is entirely dark red as are large parts of Eastern Europe.

Dark red signifies a very high risk of COVID-19 incidence.

Last week the capital Zagreb and Pannonian Croatia were dark red on the ECDC map, while Adriatic Croatia and North Croatia were red.

The ECDC estimates COVID-19 risk according to the bigger statistical regions within a country (NUTS 2).

NUTS 2 regions must have a minimum of 800,000 inhabitants and a maximum of three million. There are only four NUTS2 regions in Croatia - Pannonian Croatia, Adriatic Croatia, Northern Croatia, and the City of Zagreb.

ECDC Map for October 28th, 2021

Unlike during the summer months, when the epidemiological situation was worst in the west of the EU, now regions in the east of the EU are mostly marked red or dark red.

All regions of Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovenia are dark red, as are the largest parts of Slovakia and smaller parts of Greece. Hungary and Germany are entirely red, while neighboring Austria is partly red and partly dark red.

The epidemiological situation is better in the Czech Republic, where two regions are orange and the rest are red. The situation is similar in Poland, while all Baltic countries are entirely dark red.

Of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden has the best situation, being entirely orange, while Finland is completely red.

The Benelux countries as well as Ireland are red or dark red, while France is completely orange.

Italy and Spain have the best epidemiological situation, being green and orange, while Portugal is orange.

The ECDC updates its epidemiological map every Thursday.

Red means the number of active cases in the past two weeks has been between 75 and 200 per 100,000 population and that 4% or more of the COVID tests have been positive.

Dark red are those countries where the total number of cases in 14 days has been over 500.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

For more on travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 28 Oct 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has registered 4,154 new coronavirus cases, 26 patients have died and 11,320 vaccine doses have been administered, it was said on the government's website koronavirus.hr on Thursday.

There are currently 22,382 active cases, including 1,231 hospitalized patients, of whom 160 are on ventilators.

The number of new cases in the last 24 hours is lower than on Wednesday when Croatia registered 4,571 new cases, the second-highest daily number of new infections since the start of the epidemic. That number was nonetheless higher than on the same day last week when there were 3,053 new infections.

Since the first registered case of the infection on 25 February 2020, a total of 458,090 people have become infected and of them, 9,142 have died.

A total of 426,566 people have recovered, including 2,391 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 34,954 people are self-isolating.

So far a total of 3,073,618 people have been tested, including 12,300 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 3,586,560 vaccine doses have been administered and 46.78% of the total population has been vaccinated while 52.83% of the adult population has been fully vaccinated.

On 27 October 11,320 vaccine doses were administered, including 4,327 that were administered as first shots.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

October the 28th, 2021 - The CDC has recommended that people do not travel to Croatia as the country is now considered to be high risk for the contraction of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, level 4 or high-risk countries are those that have had more than 500 cases of COVID-19 reported per 10,000 inhabitants over the last 28 days, according to the CDC.

“Avoid travelling to these destinations. If you do have to travel to these destinations, you should be fully vaccinated before travelling,'' advises the CDC, and this message now applies to travel to Croatia, which has seen a dramatic increase in infection cases over the last few days.

As many as 77 countries are on the CDC's list of high-risk countries due to their respective epidemiological situations, and Croatia has now unfortunately joined them, as reported by N1.

The CDC does not recommend that people travel to Croatia, and they point out that due to the current epidemiological picture here, even vaccinated people are at risk of infection and spreading the now numerous active new coronavirus variants.

Other popular tourist destinations on the list of high-risk countries are Jamaica, Turkey and Thailand, and among the European nations; Austria, Greece, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. You can see the full list of countries to which travel is being discouraged compiled by the CDC by clicking here.

In addition, the CDC doesn't recommend international travel for unvaccinated people whatsoever, CNN reports. Travellers who are fully vaccinated are less likely to become infected and spread the virus further, but international travel still poses a risk to all, according to the CDC.

For more on travel to Croatia during the coronavirus pandemic, including border rules and the locations of testing centres and vaccination points, make sure to check out our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 27 Oct 2021 - MP Renata Sabljar-Dračevac (Social Democrats) said on Wednesday there was no longer any trust in the national COVID-19 crisis management team and called for its resignation.

Due to the high COVID-19 mortality rate and extreme irresponsibility, we call for the resignation of the national COVID-19 crisis management team and the appointment of serious experts who would restore the trust of citizens with consistency and expertise, achieving thus a better vaccination rate, the MP said.

According to unofficial data, Croatia has 4,400 new cases today, there have been 30 deaths over the past 48 hours, and the number of active cases is nearly 18,000 yesterday, Sabljar-Dračevac said.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 27 Oct 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 13,083 coronavirus tests, and 35% of them, that is 4,571, have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Wednesday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by 26 to 9,116.

Currently, there are 20,645 active cases, and of them 1,207 are receiving hospital treatment, including 153 patients placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection with coronavirus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, a total of 3,061,318 tests have been conducted showing that 453,936 people have contracted the virus. Of them, 423,175 have recovered from the disease so far, including 1,844 in the last 24 hours.

Croatia has applied over 3.57 million vaccine doses against this disease under its vaccine rollout plan, and to date, 52.70% of adult citizens have fully been vaccinated.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 26 October, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 10,761 coronavirus tests and 31.2% of them (3,360) have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Tuesday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by 30 to 9,090.

Currently there are nearly 18,000 active cases, and of them 1,170 are receiving hospital treatment, including 139 patients placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection with coronavirus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, a total of 3,048,235 tests have been conducted showing that 449,365 people have contracted the virus. Of them, 422,331 have recovered from the disease so far, including 2,031 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Croatia has applied nearly 3.57 million vaccine doses against this disease under its vaccine rollout plan, and to date 52.58% of adult citizens have fully been vaccinated. 

ZAGREB, 26 October, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that the further efforts to contain the current wave of the COVID pandemic would go into three directions: promoting a booster dose, stepping up inspections of application of indoor mask-wearing rule and possibly online teaching for some schools.

After a regular meeting of the leadership of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Monday afternoon, Plenković said that Education Minister Radovan Fuchs and local COVID-19 response teams would establish if some of the schools should switch to online teaching and that also the authorities "are thinking of extending the autumn (school) holidays to last the whole week" so as to lessen the circulation of the virus.

He recalled that a whole set of measures and anti-epidemic rules are in effect, however, all of us in the country "seem more relaxed than we ought to be".

Prime Minister called on citizens to get vaccinates, and underscored that nearly 8 in 10 COVID patients on ventilators are unvaccinated.

Commenting on the final guilty verdict in the INA-MOL case under which a former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was given six years for graft and MOL CEO Zsolt Hernadi two years, Plenković said that the judgement was conducive for Croatia's arguments in the international INA-MOL arbitration process.

He said that the legal representatives had been informed of the verdict and were told to add that to Croatia's documentation.

The premier said that this year's economic growth would be higher than 8% and would thus offset the negative GDP in 2020.

Plenković said that President Zoran Milanović had contacted him about convening a meeting of the Defence Council an added that a meeting of the National Security Council should be convened for the same day.

Commenting on the recent final verdict in the Fimi Media corruption case in which the HDZ was fined and ordered to pay back to the budget HRK 14.3 million, Plenković said that the party would probably paid that money into the budget on Tuesday.

ZAGREB, 25 Oct 2021 - At the moment 3,820 students and 554 teachers are positive for coronavirus, a decision to switch to online classes can be made by local authorities in cooperation with county COVID-19 response teams, and for now the education ministry does not plan to change the school year calendar.

The calendar is defined by the decision adopted in late April, regarding the start and end of the school year, the number of working days and the duration of school breaks, the ministry told Hina on Monday.

At the moment 2,226 primary and 1,594 secondary school students are positive for coronavirus.

Zagreb accounts for the majority of those infected with 660 primary and 480 secondary school students, while Lika-Senj County accounts for the fewest - 24 in primary and four in secondary schools.

As for positive teachers, most are in Zagreb, 134, and the fewest in Požega-Slavonia County, five.

Also, 6,743 primary and 3,372 secondary school students are self-isolating, the largest number in Zagreb, 3,569, and the smallest in Krapina-Zagorje County, 14.

There are also 159 school employees in self-isolation, most in Zagreb, 41, and least in Požega-Slavonia, Koprivnica-Križevci and Vukovar-Srijem counties with one in each.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 25 Oct 2021 - The national coronavirus response team on Monday discussed the COVID-19 situation in Croatia and the possibility of stepping up checks of the anti-epidemic measures in force, such as wearing face masks inside public spaces, the team's head, Davor Božinović, told a press conference.

Božinović recalled that they had anticipated a rise in the number of new cases in the autumn and addressed the problem by combining recommendations on compliance with the basic anti-epidemic measures with calls for vaccination. "Apart from these measures, there are no special activities that can be used in this situation," he added.

Since nearly a quarter of new cases come from schools, Božinović said that they would look into the possibility of face-to-face classes being suspended for two days in the week around All Saints' Day, 1 November. He said they also discussed the promotion of a booster dose for people whose level of antibodies is decreasing.

"As for the existing measures, notably wearing face masks, checks should indeed be stepped up because this obligation is taken too lightly," Božinović said, adding that the possibility of bringing COVID certificates into wider use is not being considered for now.

He stressed that there are enough vaccines against COVID-19 and that vaccination can prevent more serious forms of the disease. "A combination of the anti-epidemic measures and vaccination can get us out of the crisis," Božinović said.

For more on politics, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 25 Oct 2021 - The Minister of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, Josip Aladrović, has tested positive for COVID-19, he wrote on his Facebook account on Monday.

"I took a test for COVID-19 yesterday after feeling mild symptoms associated with this disease, including an elevated temperature and cough. The test has turned out positive," the minister said.

"I am in touch with doctors and epidemiologists. I feel good and am continuing my regular duties from isolation at home," he added.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.