ZAGREB, 25 Oct 2021 - Croatia has registered 680 new coronavirus cases and 22 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Monday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 16,645. Among them are 1,159 infected persons who are receiving hospital treatment, of whom 143 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 446,005 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 9,060 have died and 420,300 have recovered, including 1,854 in the last 24 hours. 29,237 people are currently self-isolating.

To date, 3,037,474 people have been tested for COVID-19, of whom 2,789 in the last 24 hours.

As of 24 October, 3,558,842 doses of vaccine have been administered, with 46.51 percent of the total population, or 55.73 percent of the adults, having been vaccinated. 1,887,251 people have received at least one dose and 1,774,513 have been fully vaccinated, which makes up 52.50 percent of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 24 Oct, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 8,652 coronavirus tests and of them 2,293 (26.5%)  have turned out to be positive, and 28 COVID patients have died, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Sunday.

Currently, there are 17,841 active cases, and of them 1,091 are hospitalised patients, including 131 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection with the virus on 25 February 2020, 445,325 people have caught it, and of them 9,038 have died and 418,446 have recovered, including 1,743 in the last 24 hours.

To date, over 3.03 million coronavirus tests have been conducted in the country

In Croatia, 55.72% of the adult citizens have fully been vaccinated against this infectious disease.

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ZAGREB, 24 Oct, 2021 - Germany added Croatia and Bulgaria to areas high-risk for Covid-19 on Sunday, triggering a minimum five-day quarantine for unvaccinated or unrecovered travellers arriving from the two countries, the dpa news agency reported on Sunday.

On Friday the Robert Koch Institute announced that Germany had decided to add Croatia to its list of COVID-19 high-risk countries, which means that people who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered from COVID-19 will have to self-isolate for 10 days on arrival from Croatia. Travellers arriving from high-risk countries will be allowed to end their self-isolation after five days if they present a negative test or a vaccination certificate.

 The institute also noted that the decision came into effect on Sunday.

"Three other European Union members - Romania, Lithuania and Slovenia - were already on the list overseen by Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control," the dpa news agency reported today..

"Globally, some 70 countries are classified high-risk Covid-19 areas by Germany. Anyone who has not recovered or been fully vaccinated and returns to Germany must go into quarantine for 10 days. This period can be shortened if they test negative after five days," dpa says.

In addition to Croatia and Bulgaria, Cameroon, Singapore and the Republic of the Congo were added on Sunday. Kenya, Kosovo, Iraq and Honduras were removed.

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ZAGREB, 23 Oct 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 3,585 coronavirus cases and 25 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are 17,319 active cases, including 1,033 hospitalized patients, of whom 128 are on ventilators, while 27,714 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 443,032 coronavirus cases to date as well as 9,010 COVID deaths and 416,703 recoveries, including 1,541 in the past 24 hours, while 3,026,033 persons have been tested for the virus, with 11,193 in the past 24 hours.

To date, 46.46% of the population has been vaccinated, including 55.67% of adults, of whom 52.43% fully.

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ZAGREB, 21 Oct 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš on Thursday criticized comments by a member of the government's Scientific Council, Gordan Lauc, related to vaccination, saying that Council members should send a clear message and be aware that their opinions could be harmful.

Beroš added, however, that Lauc has the right to his own opinion.

"It is bad when everyone has the same opinion. That would show that we made a mistake somewhere. But I am critical of what is made public. I appeal for that to not be the case and that everyone who participates in the Scientific Council be aware that by presenting their opinion on social networks they could be doing harm," Beroš told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

He underscored that that is why he personally appealed to members of the Council to send clear messages and not to confuse citizens.

Commenting on Lauc's post on Facebook that "the consensus of the Scientific Council is that vaccines are a poor protection against infection," Beroš said that everyone has the right to their own opinion but the common stance after the Council's meetings, which is a voluntary advisory body for the government, is made by a government representative.

Asked if Lauc would be ousted from the Council, Beroš said that Lauc is responsible for his own opinions but that he believes "individuals will realize that expressing their opinions is damaging and that that will change."

First step in reform is to combine public procurement

Beroš also spoke about the proposed reform of the health system which the ministry has sent to interested institutions for their ideas and proposals.

He announced that as part of the reform, regardless of amendments to the law on healthcare, the first step will be to combine public procurement in health institutions.

"A precondition to combine public procurement is their ownership structure because the ministry and state do not have the option to impose any obligation on county hospitals to join in combined public procurement. Combined public procurement is the first step we will deal with and certain steps have already been taken in that regard," he said, adding that the results would quickly be visible.

"Whether it will be necessary to centralize county institutions or not is still a matter of dispute. We will see what the final draft decision will be after consultations," he said.

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ZAGREB, 21 Oct 2021 - In the last 24 hours, 3,053 new coronavirus cases have been registered in Croatia, which is an increase of 56 percent compared with last Wednesday, Health Minister Vili Beroš told a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

"The share of infections in the number of people tested is 28.24 percent. 938 persons are receiving hospital treatment and 131 of them are on ventilators," the health minister said.

"The rise in the number of new cases of 56 percent compared with last Wednesday is a call for much-needed caution. The too large a pool of unvaccinated people gives the coronavirus a considerable space to spread," he added.

Beroš noted that of the total number of COVID-infected people hospitalized in the past week, 70.8 percent were not vaccinated. During that time, 100 persons were placed on ventilators and as many as 86 percent of them were not vaccinated.

Beroš, however, said that the number of hospitalized people in the fourth wave of the pandemic was lower than in the second and third waves thanks to vaccination.

The largest number of new cases was reported among young people, aged 9-19, and those aged 40-49, while the median age was 36.

By Wednesday, 55.38 percent of the adult population had been vaccinated and 1,489 people had received the third dose.

Beroš said that 73 percent of health workers had been vaccinated, including nearly 80 percent of doctors. The percentage of vaccinated doctors is close to 90 percent if those immunized by the infection are included, he added

No new epidemiological measures were put in place in the past week, and the present ones are in force until 31 October.

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ZAGREB, 21 Oct 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday warned of the growing number of coronavirus cases in Croatia, saying that the death toll would soon exceed 9,000 and stressing the importance of vaccination and compliance with epidemiological measures.

"We must comply with the basic protection measures - wearing a face mask, keeping a distance, airing the premises, and maintaining hand hygiene," Plenković said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

He stressed the importance and necessity of vaccination, especially for elderly people, noting that the elderly are at greater risk if they contract COVID-19. "One in four elderly persons aged 65 and over have not been vaccinated yet, and we are talking about 238,000 persons or about 25-27 percent."

Plenković warned that the COVID-19 death toll will soon exceed 9,000. "This is a high price we are paying as a nation and society. But now we have vaccines, and there is no reason for this number to be so high," the prime minister said, adding that the vaccines also effectively protect against serious forms of the disease.

He appealed to people who have still not been vaccinated to get vaccinated, citing the views of medical professionals and the government's Scientific Council as well as statistics.

74 percent of hospitalized COVID patients not vaccinated

Plenković said that 74 percent of infected people who have been hospitalized this month were not vaccinated, which is three in four patients, while 80 percent of patients who were or still are on ventilators were not vaccinated, which is four in five.

"These are very clear and convincing figures," Plenković said, noting that 93 percent of the people who died from coronavirus were above the age of 60 and 98 percent were above the age of 50.

He said that the Scientific Council, which met two days ago, stressed the importance of vaccination, especially for the elderly.

"We all agree with the view of the Croatian Public Health Institute on a third dose, that it should be administered to immunocompromised persons and to health and welfare workers because it will help in the fight against the epidemic," the prime minister said.

He said that the situation in Croatia is similar to the rest of the world. "The unvaccinated people represent a pool where the virus spreads the most and where mutations occur the most. It's a fact that vaccinated people can also transmit the virus, but that is less likely than among the unvaccinated, and in the case of infection the disease is much milder."

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ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - Croatian Public Health Institute deputy head Ivana Pavić Šimetin said on Wednesday that the latest surge in new COVID-19 infections called for a return to the basic epidemiological rules, noting that a fourth wave of the epidemic would depend on the rate of vaccination against coronavirus.

There have been 3,162 new coronavirus infections in the country in the past 24 hours, and Pavić Šimetin said that such a situation had not been recorded for a long time.

"After we had three stable weeks, with a mild increase in the number of infections, for the past three days we have had a major increase - today the number of infections was 27% higher, yesterday it was 70% higher and the day before yesterday it was 30% higher compared to the previous week. It is a bigger increase that requires a return to the basic measures, notably vaccination," she told a news conference.

She said that the European Commission envisages that the countries with higher vaccination rates and relaxation of measures should not expect a deterioration concerning hospitalisations and deaths, while the countries with a lower share of immunised people, such as Croatia, could expect higher hospitalisation and death numbers as well as more patients on ventilators, and even more severe symptoms among the vaccinated people if the share of the unvaccinated remains high.

We are facing the ascending curve of the fourth wave present in Europe, and the peak and intensity as well as the duration of this wave depends on the rate of vaccinated persons and on what kind of anti-epidemic measures are being taken, she said.

Croatia has not reached collective immunity, colder weather can be expected and the new school year has begun, and all of that has contributed to the current developments, she added.

3 in 4 new cases on Wednesday unvaccinated

Commenting on today's new 3,162 cases of the infection with coronavirus, she said that 74% of them were not inoculated. Of 98 COVID patients admitted to hospital today, 73% were unvaccinated, she said.

Of those under 55 who died of COVID-19, all were unvaccinated, she said.

As for those vaccinated who succumbed to this infection, the epidemiologist said that they were mainly senior citizens with underlying conditions.

ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Wednesday that the surge in new coronavirus cases was concerning, but not surprising given the insufficient vaccination rate.

"This is the conclusion of medical professionals at all levels, including the World Health Organisation. The low vaccination rate has a direct impact on the course of this epidemic," Beroš said on Twitter.

The course of the fourth wave of the epidemic is determined by citizens who still have doubts about science and the medical profession, Beroš said. "Their decision affects not just individuals but all of us. Let us follow the example of highly vaccinated countries and head towards a safe health future."

The national COVID-19 response team on Wednesday reported 3,162 new coronavirus cases and 23 related deaths in the last 24 hours. The number of new infections was more than 50 percent higher than last Wednesday, when 2,022 new cases were reported, while two weeks ago 1,925 cases were confirmed. The last time more than 3,000 cases were registered in a single day was April.

ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - Croatian Public Health Institute director Krunoslav Capak said after a meeting of the Scientific Council on Tuesday that they did not discuss extending the use of COVID certificates to other sectors of society, but that the matter was likely to be addressed because of neighbouring countries.

"We did not discuss that, there is no plan about that. But if you look at the countries around us, western European countries, you will see that they are increasingly using COVID certificates as a form of relative pressure on persons who are not vaccinated, because people who have been vaccinated have certain advantages in using services, visiting cultural institutions, restaurants," Capak told a press conference.

"Right now we do not have any plan, but it is very likely that we will discuss the matter soon," he added.

Capak said that the introduction of COVID certificates in the healthcare and social welfare systems was successful. "I would say that there will soon come a time when we will start discussing a possible extension of this measure."

As for the possibility of measures being tightened because of the rise in new COVID-19 cases, Capak said they think that a balanced approach is the best.

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that the meeting mostly discussed the administration of a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, adding that all members of the Scientific Council agreed that the third dose should be administered to immunocompromised persons and to health and welfare workers.

"All scientists are unanimous in the opinion that the third dose is absolutely acceptable and that it will help us in fighting this epidemic. They are also of the view that differences in interpretation and giving recommendations for vaccination should be reduced," Beroš said.

Beroš said that he would get the third dose. "The first dose I received was AstraZeneca, and the position of medical professionals is that a mRNA vaccine should be used for revaccination. I have no doubts, I will get the third dose and it will most likely be Pfizer or another mRNA vaccine."

Beroš said that 78.2 percent of medical workers had been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 89.81 percent of doctors and 76.36 percent of nurses, as well as 72 percent of citizens aged above 65. He appealed to people who did not get vaccinated to do so.