ZAGREB, 11 Oct 2021 - Croatia has registered 170 new coronavirus infections and six related deaths over the past 24 hours, and the number of active cases stands at 8,285, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

There are 868 COVID patients in hospitals, and 131 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia recorded its first case, a total of 418,028 people have been registered as having contracted coronavirus, 8,778 of them have died, and 400,965 have recovered, including 1,302 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 17,029 people in self-isolation.

To date, a total of 2,916,030 people have been tested, 2,854 of whom over the past 24 hours, when the share of positive tests was 6%.

As of Sunday, 3,486,793 vaccine doses against this novel virus were administered, and 45.66% of the total population or 54.75% of the adult population was vaccinated.

The share of the adult population fully vaccinated stood at 51.37% on Sunday.

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October the 11th, 2021 - Croatian Immunologist Luka Cicin Sain is part of a team researching a new vaccine intended for use against the novel coronavirus, which has put the world more or less on hold for over eighteen months now. He claims that this new and ''improved'' vaccine could make an appearance on the market as soon as the end of the year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, immunologist Luka Cicin Sain has stated that the question is what the response will be in regard to a third dose of the vaccine when new ones are placed on the market.

''We could have new, improved vaccines that are currently being worked on in just a few months,'' noted immunologist Luka Cicin-Sain, whose team is also involved in research into new vaccines.

"The Wuhan virus and the Delta variant aren't the same, but the differences between them aren't big"

Despite the fact that so far we have had several different strains of the novel coronavirus that have each at some point dominated and spread among the population, such as the British, South African, and now the Delta strain - the coronavirus vaccines which are currently available for use have all remained the same, more or less meaning that they've been adapted to the very first Wuhan strain which is now virtually non-existent, overtaken by various other strains. The question on the lips of many is: Why get vaccinated with a third dose in that case at all?

“The Wuhan virus and the Delta virus aren't the samw, but the differences between them aren't big. The difference lies in the spike protein, and that’s what our antibodies recognise when we get vaccinated against a virus, they’ve only changed a few amino acids out of a thousand amino acids that make up this protein. Antibodies that are created after vaccination, which recognise these strains, can block both strains from entering the cells,'' explained viral immunologist Luka Cicin Sain recently for Dnevnik Nova TV.

"It's realistic to expect that some new coronavirus vaccines will be on the market at the end of the year"

He added that laboratories around the world are working on modifying the current vaccines.

"Vaccines that have a Delta strain spike instead of a Wuhan one are already being tested," said the Croatian immunologist, who is also participating in such research.

"We've seen that it works very well with animals, that we can see longer-term protection, but we haven't yet come to ask the regulatory agencies to start experimenting on humans. That said, others certainly already underdoing clinical trials in humans. It's realistic to expect that new vaccine formulations will be on the market at the end of this year or the very beginning of next year,'' he pointed out, but stressed that it isn't yet known how much the vaccine will protect against strains which are yet to appear.

"There will be more types of coronavirus vaccines, just as there are with influenza vaccines"

He said there would be no single vaccine, but more types, which is done in a similar way each year for new influenza strains.

“Some of them will insert several variants of the spike, which is the case with influenza vaccines,” he explained.

Some people have been getting tests to check their antibody levels and see how protected they are. How good is that as an indicator?

"It’s not really ideal because there are cases where someone may have high levels of antibodies but that aren’t particularly effective, and vice versa. If you have a high amount of antibodies, it probably means that you don't need a third dose of the vaccine,'' immunologist Luka Cicin Sain stated.

He pointed out that there is still no clear information about people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus several times. It’s hard to say who contracted it and then recovered twice because some of them weren’t symptomatic the first time.

"With vaccines, it's clear - if someone has been vaccinated, there's information about it. It isn't to be expected that vaccination and natural immunity will be the same, but natural immunity is acquired in a very expensive way, because it can cost lives,'' concluded immunologist Luka Cicin Sain.

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ZAGREB, 10 Oct, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 908 coronavirus cases and nine related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Sunday.

There are 9,423 active cases, including 839 hospitalised patients, 124 of whom are on ventilators, and 18,408 persons are self-isolating.

To date 2,913,176 persons have been tested for the virus, including 8,894 in the past 24 hours.

To date Croatia has registered 417,858 coronavirus cases, 8,722 related deaths and 399,663 recoveries, including 1,250 in the past 24 hours.

To date 45.65% of the population has been vaccinated against COVID, including 54.74% of adults, 51.36% of whom have completed vaccination.

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October the 10th, 2021 - The Croatian vaccine rollout is still ongoing, and even though mandatory covid certificates are now firmly in place across health and social care, a quarter of Croats claim that they'd ''never'' get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this revelation follows on from the results of a survey published by Eurobarometer. This is a field survey of the barometer of people's attitudes in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) on the economy, the coronavirus pandemic and the covid vaccination rollout which was conducted in June and July this year.

In what are likely the most interesting results for the Republic of Croatia are those on people's attitudes towards covid vaccination. In the research, they asked respondents from 27 European Union countries when they would like to receive their covid vaccine, ie whether they have already received it or not.

Looking at the European Union's average, 69 percent of respondents said they would like to be vaccinated as soon as possible or that they have already received the vaccine. 9 percent of respondents said they would like to receive the vaccine this year, 11 percent said “later,” and 10 percent said “never”.

That doesn't seem particularly outstanding, but the numbers for Croatia are much more devastating. This country is at the very bottom of the scale of interest in the covid vaccine, and a large number of Croats claim they'd never get the vaccine.

In as many as 22 European Union member states, more than half of the respondents say they want to be vaccinated as soon as possible or have already been vaccinated, led by Malta, the Netherlands and Ireland (87 percent), Belgium (86 percent), Spain (85 percent) and Sweden. (84 percent) and Denmark (83 percent). It's worth mentioning that even though the UK is no longer a member of the bloc, it is one of the European countries with the most impressive vaccination rates of all, with a massive 45 million people having been fully vaccinated at the time of writing this article.

Unfortunately, Croatia is on the other side of the vaccine spectrum, where the countries where people least want to get vaccinated are. Namely, about a quarter of the respondents from Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovenia and Croatia said that they never want to be vaccinated against covid. The fact that Croats claim this is odd indeed, given the fact that restrictions in the country have been extremely mild and yet many have done nothing but complain.

Among the four aforementioned EU countries, Bulgaria is the worst (26 percent of Bulgarian respondents don't want to be vaccinated at all), followed by Latvia and Slovenia with 24 percent and Croatia with 22 percent, as reported by Index.

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October the 9th, 2021 - Croatia's largest medical facility, Zagreb's Rebro hospital, is preparing sanctions for eleven employees over issues regarding the recently introduced mandatory covid certificate system.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Rebro hospital (KBC Zagreb) is preparing eleven official warnings before dismissal for non-compliance with the introduction of digital covid certificates in the health and social care system, Jutarnji list has unofficially found out.

The largest Croatian hospital seems to be the first to have decided to more severely sanction its employees. Namely, yesterday was the third day since the introduction of the obligation to present covid certificates, and in the first two days of the system's application, according to the Ministry of Health, out of a total of 52,561 employees in healthcare, 31 of them refused to be tested for the novel coronavirus.

Refusal to show a Croatian covid certificate and the refusal to be tested is treated by the hospital as non-attendance and people who fall into this category will not receive compensation for that day. Three consecutive days of what is considered absence (as it is in this case) is considered a serious violation of the terms of employment and the employer may issue a formal warning before dismissal.

At KBC Sestre Milosrdnice, another large Zagreb hospital and the one with the highest number of people who didn't want to be tested in the first two days of this new system being in place for all hospital staff, there are no formal warnings given before dismissing an employee.

As Jutarnji list has since learned, the reason is solely because no one has been absent from work for three days in a row - yet. Namely, three employees were tested, one presented a covid certificate, four decided to go on sick leave, one employee went on holiday, and one person had a day off due to being on call.

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ZAGREB, 9 October, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 1,594 coronavirus cases and 11 related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are 9,774 active cases, including 814 hospitalised patients, of whom 125 are on ventilators, while 19,159 persons are self-isolating.

To date Croatia has registered 416,950 coronavirus cases, including 8,763 deaths, while 398,413 persons have recovered, including 1,324 in the past 24 hours.

Also, 2,904,282 persons have been tested for the virus, of whom 9,395 in the past 24 hours.

To date 45.6% of the population has been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 54.69% of adults, 51.2% of whom have completed vaccination.

ZAGREB, 8 Oct 2021 - In the past 24 hours 1,691 coronavirus cases and 22 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

There are 9,515 active cases and 805 hospitalised COVID patients, including 121 on ventilators, while 17,452 persons are self-isolating.

In the past 24 hours 9,816 persons have been tested for the virus.

To date Croatia has registered 415,356 coronavirus cases, 8,752 COVID deaths and 397,089 recoveries, including 1,453 in the past 24 hours.

Also, 45.51% of the population has been vaccinated, including 54.58% of adults, of whom 51.19% fully.

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October the 8th, 2021 - There have been many issues (for some) about the introduction of mandatory Croatian covid passes for entry into hospitals and other such facilities. Even medical and other staff working in Croatian healthcare institutions as well as in the social care system must now have either Croatian covid passes, or accept that they need very frequent testing, which will eventually need to be paid for out of their own pockets.

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who has, since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, been much more associated with the National Civil Protection Directorate than with the police, has revealed some quite significant changes in this regard.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, at the recent suggestion of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), the decisions regarding the obligation to test people for the presence of the novel coronavirus in the healthcare system and social welfare systems were changed, according to Minister Bozinovic.

The period of validity of Croatian covid passes, which have caused a lot off fuss and by which certain categories of persons can prove that they have overcome the illness or are fully vaccinated has been extended from nine to twelve months. The move will more than likely result in a sigh of relief for all those who are either fully vaccinated or have proof of their recovery from the disease, as they will now be able to put this issue to the backs of their minds for an entire year.

Those who have very recently tested negative for the disease, are fully vaccinated against it, and those who have contracted coronavirus in the past and can prove it with a positive test result from that time, can all obtain Croatian covid passes.

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ZAGREB, 7 Oct 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said at a government session on Thursday that the vaccination of medical staff against COVID-19 had been stepped up and that the current rate was 74%, with the highest increase in vaccination having been reported among nurses.

"Compared to a week ago, the share of unvaccinated staff has dropped by 2.4% and most of the newly vaccinated are nurses and other medical staff, which is an increase of 2.8%," Beroš said.

He commended medical institutions for the good organization of the introduction of COVID-19 certificates in the healthcare sector. So far 11,567 employees have been tested, 41 have been found to be positive for coronavirus, and 36 have refused to get tested, he said.

"By doing so we are not violating anyone's rights, quite the contrary. It is our duty to secure conditions for the safe treatment of every patient," said the minister.

Beroš said that his ministry had formed a commission to monitor the treatment of cancer patients in order to respond to the challenges of the post-COVID period as well as a task force to formulate amendments to the health insurance and health care laws to define new solutions regarding the availability of health care.

Speaking of the national day against breast cancer, the minister said that prevention programs had continued during the pandemic, albeit with a 10% drop.

He noted that Croatia had seen a drop in breast cancer cases of some 25% for the fifth consecutive year.

Irena Petrijevčanin, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, said that the EU digital certificate based on a rapid antigen test was valid for 48 hours, one based on a PCR test for 72 hours, a certificate proving one's recovery from COVID-19 was valid for 180 days and one proving vaccination 365 days.

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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, 7 Oct 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 1,748 coronavirus cases and eight related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

There are 9,299 active cases, including 823 hospitalized patients, of whom 119 are on ventilators, while 16,379 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has logged 413,665 coronavirus cases to date, 8,730 deaths, and 395,636 recoveries, including 1,254 in the past 24 hours.

Also, 2,885,071 persons have been tested for the virus, including 10,592 in the past 24 hours.

54% of adults vaccinated

To date, 45.39% of the population has been vaccinated against COVID, including 54.44% of adults, of whom 51.07% are fully 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.