ZAGREB, 27 July, 2021 - Croatia has registered 193 new coronavirus cases and no COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Tuesday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 971. This includes 143 people who are receiving hospital treatment, 13 of whom are on ventilators. A total of 3,267 people are in self-isolation.

Since late February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 362,841 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,247 have died and 353,623 have recovered, including 146 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 2,275,433 people have been tested for coronavirus to date, including 7,393 in the last 24 hours.

By 26 July, 3,018,451 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 had been administered, with 40 percent of the total population and 48.1 percent of the adult population having been vaccinated. A total of 1,623,475 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 1,440,370 of them have been fully vaccinated (1,394,976 have received two doses and 45,394 have been inoculated with the single-dose Jannsen vaccine), which makes up 42.76 percent of the adult population.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

July the 27th, 2021 - Although the title might sound rather funny, Croatian zombie companies are not only no laughing matter but are only increasing in their numbers as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, despite a certain degree of domestic economic recovery and a better macroeconomic outlook, which also reduces short-term risks in the corporate sector, structural vulnerabilities in Croatia and overall exposure to systemic risks remain elevated, according to the Croatian National Bank (CNB).

The risks to the resolvability of companies whose operations were disrupted during the pandemic are especially emphasised, and that same magnifying glass also includes high and rising real estate prices and their, as they said from the CNB, "further separation from the foundations".

The combination of the vaccination progress and the mitigation of epidemiological measures should support the continuation of economic recovery throughout 2021, the new edition of Macroprudential Diagnostics points out, although the risk of increasing Croatian zombie companies remains.

Epidemiological variables such as new strains/mutations of the novel coronavirus, a slower vaccination rollout, or potential vaccine ineffectiveness are also a source of uncertainty for the further course of economic recovery. This is especially true for tourism and other activities more exposed to the effects of such a public health crisis.

Despite the overall better performance of entrepreneurship, risks and vulnerabilities remain elevated as a result of the ongoing situation, which while better, is less than favourable.

Among other things, things all depend on the effectiveness and duration (expiration) of the measures to mitigate the effects of the ongoing global pandemic on liquidity and solvency. In the acute phase of the coronavirus crisis, these risks were mitigated by very generous public sector assistance packages and the adjustment of supervisory rules to try to treat banks' exposure to affected clients.

Due to the still present uncertainties, the risk of the so-called zombification that may adversely affect the operations of banks, but also economic growth in the long run.

"As long as the support measures last, credit losses related to the corporate sector will remain low, but after their expiration, and especially due to the reduction of the capital of companies operating within sectors most exposed to the effects of the pandemic, there could be an increase in risk," warns the CNB .

Data on the fiscalisation of accounts clearly shows the recovery of revenues, but compared to pre-crisis 2019, they are still lagging behind, primarily in the activities most affected by the coronavirus crisis.

These companies, primarily those in tourism and transport (to a lesser extent also from the manufacturing industry), continue to rely on their own accumulated liquidity, the CNB notes. As of the end of May this year, these activities were in the lead with a percentage drop in deposits at the beginning of this year. At the same time, credit data shows that part of the liquidity deficit is being compensated for by additional borrowing.

The share of loans under the moratorium, on the other hand, is gradually declining, and at the same time, exposure to corporate loans in the so-called phase two, which is estimated to increase credit risk at the end of March rose to 22.7 percent.

With the gradual expiration of the moratorium, and especially if the recovery of the economy weakens, the CNB notes that the materialisation of credit risk in this segment could further burden the operations of banks and do nothing to help the increasing number of Croatian zombie companies across heavily affected sectors.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

ZAGREB, 26 July 2021 - Croatia has registered 27 new coronavirus cases and two COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Monday.

Currently, there are 924 active cases in the country, with 138 infected people receiving hospital treatment, of whom 13 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 362,648 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,247 have died and 353,477 have recovered, including 110 in the last 24 hours. Currently, 3,521 people are self-isolating.

To date, 2,251,838 people have been tested for coronavirus, including 3,372 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 3,008,752 doses of vaccine have been administered, with 39.9 percent of the total population or 48 percent of the adult population having been vaccinated. 1,620,439 people have been inoculated with at least one dose, of whom 1,433,059 have been fully inoculated (1,388,313 people have received two doses and 44,746 have been vaccinated with the single-dose Jannsen vaccine), which makes up 42.54 percent of the adult population.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

July the 26th, 2021 - With the tourist season in full swing and hopes for a longer summer season than last year high, the vaccination programme is still going full steam ahead. With some growing pains which caused issues at the beginning and still not enough people vaccinated with at least one dose, Zagreb is leading in terms of Croatian vaccinations.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Saturday, July the 24th, the number of total doses of administered vaccines against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, reached 3,005,376, reports the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

A total of 1,620,106 Croatian residents have now been vaccinated with their first dose of the vaccine, of which 1,385,270 have been vaccinated with two doses, while the Croatian vaccination (full vaccination) was completed for 1,429,990 persons (with two doses and 44,720 doses of Janssen, which are single dose vaccines), added the Croatian Institute of Public Health in new statement.

“Even after consuming more than three million doses of the vaccine, HALMED has not received a single report of a suspected fatal side effect that has been found to be even causally related to vaccination. Of the 4435 reports of suspected adverse reactions received, the most commonly reported adverse reactions were fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, general feelings of weakness, fatigue, redness at the vaccine site, nausea and some joint pain. These are the expected side effects,'' stated the CNIPH head, epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak.

The highest coverage of those vaccinated with the first dose was achieved in the City of Zagreb (46.1 percent of the total population, ie 55.8 percent of the adult population), and the highest coverage of the completed vaccination processes was also achieved in the City of Zagreb (40.4 percent of the total population, ie 48.9 percent of the capital's adult population).

For more on Croatian vaccinations and coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and choose your preferred language.

July the 25th, 2021 - Under what conditions exactly could Croatia afford to fully open up again? With all eyes on the enviable vaccination rate of the British population and the final, total opening up of that Northern European island nation's society on the 19th of July, questions are being asked. Croatian epidemiologist Bernard Kaic sought to answer some questions.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, epidemiologist Bernard Kaic says that the number of older and potentially clinically vulnerable people who haven't yet been vaccinated is still much too high in Croatia. In his opinion, the response to vaccination in the last few weeks has been much more solid because between 5,000 and 10,000 people are being vaccinated with their first dose on a daily basis, and between 10,000 and 15,000 are receiving their second dose.

Over recent says, the whole world has been busy closely following the events in Great Britain, where, despite the growing number of coronavirus patients, almost all epidemiological measures have been abolished since Monday, Novi list writes. Concert halls, clubs and stadiums are open with almost no restrictions, but some scientists warn that this is a risky experiment to undertake with some uncertain consequences.

The British authorities estimated that, with the relatively high vaccination rate in that country, the time had come to open up and stop living in a world in which we do nothing but think about the novel coronavirus.

Epidemiologist Bernard Kaic, head of the CNIPH's Epidemiology Service, says that the British experience in the coming weeks, if their opening up proves justified, will be able to serve as an example to other countries, but only to those with high vaccination coverage. Croatia isn't in that club yet. The United Kingdom has vaccinated almost 70 percent of the population with the first dose, and 55 percent with the second. Among those who are older and more vulnerable, the vaccination rate in the UK is as high as 85 percent.

''I don't know what will happen in Great Britain, time will tell. This depends on how protected by vaccination those who are the main candidates for hospitalisation, primarily older people, actually are. As far as I understand, they've achieved great vaccination coverage among those people there and are counting on not filling hospital beds up because the elderly are protected and the young are suffering from milder forms of the disease they can cope with at home. Whether that will be the case or not will be revealed in a few weeks,'' stated Bernard Kaic.

The main condition for the introduction of the British model in another country is a high vaccination coverage of the population, until Croatia manages to join that club, it doesn't seem like a British-style grand opening is on the cards.

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

ZAGREB, 24 July, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 191 coronavirus cases have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases is 1,013 and there are 121 hospitalised patients, including 15 on ventilators, while 3,194 persons are self-isolating.

To date, Croatia has registered 362,496 coronavirus cases and 8,245 deaths, while 353,238 persons have recovered from COVID, including 135 in the past 24 hours.

To date, 2,242,487 persons have been tested for the virus, including 6,118 in the past 24 hours.

To date, 2,997,335 vaccine doses have been administered, with 39.9% of the population vaccinated, including 47.9% of adults.

One dose has been administered to 1,617,306 persons, while 1,423,795 persons have been fully vaccinated - 1,380,029 who have received both doses and 43,766 who have received the one dose of the Janssen vaccine.

For more updates on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

July 24, 2021 - The 2021 tourist season in Split is in full swing, with 14,000 tourists currently in the Dalmatian capital. 

"Currently, more than 14,000 tourists stay in Split, and according to the eVisitor system, 67,600 tourist arrivals and 254,000 tourist overnight stays have been realized in the Split area since the beginning of July, which is an increase of 94 percent in arrivals and 80 percent in overnight stays compared to 2020. The largest number of tourist overnights was realized from these main markets: Poland, Germany, France, and the USA, and from Croatia itself," said Tina Ćurković from the Split Tourist Board and explained that the number of tourists in Split is actually higher because of the midnight registration deadline for currently registered tourists in the eVisitor system, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

"Our statistics do not include guests from cruise ships or visitors who do not spend the night," says Tina Ćurković.

When looking at Split-Dalmatia County, things are also going better than expected in the most optimistic forecasts from the beginning of the year. However, it has become increasingly difficult to find free accommodation in Split and its surroundings in recent days, especially with private renters.

"The acceleration of the season is noticeable. Statistics also show this. The most numerous guests are Poles. From the beginning of the year to July 22, as many as 935,000 Polish tourists arrived in Croatia," reports Joško Stella, director of the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board.

He confirms that the Czechs are behind them, and there are also Germans and Slovenes. There are also a lot of local guests - about half a million.

"Tourists who come by car predominate, and this has been the case for the last ten years, and the only thing that has changed is their order, so sometimes we get the most Germans or Czechs, and this time its Poles. So we can say that Poles, Czechs, Germans, Slovenes are among our most loyal guests and that our season, at least for now, is going very well," Stella says satisfied.

Between 65 and 70 percent of traffic from the record and most prosperous 2019 has already been recorded. 

"Which, hand on heart, should not be a reference because it was exceptional by all criteria. Honestly, we all shot at the seams that year because of the overcrowding and could hardly wait for that season to end. So I would rather say that our measure is tourism that happened to us in 2016 or 2018, and if we compare ourselves with those seasons, then today's numbers of guests and overnight stays are close to the results achieved then," says Stella.

Americans and Brits have not arrived in large numbers yet. However, in recent years, they dominated when Ultra came to town. 

"The numbers have always been on the side of Poles, Czechs, Germans, Slovenes ... The Americans and the British prefer Split because they come by plane, and there is also Hvar, Dubrovnik, Zagreb, and Plitvice. There are indeed fewer guests from Asia. From South Korea, for example. Americans often came to us as cruise guests, and today there is much less of that," Stella adds.

Luckily, we are very well connected by motorways with the richest countries in Europe, which are practically our neighborhood, and our airports are great.

"Especially Split, which can be seen by the number of flights and guests, and that is our great advantage. In fact, if they managed to finish the season at this pace, they would calmly welcome autumn because the state, based on such tourist results, would still have the strength to encourage those whose business was threatened by the coronavirus pandemic," says Stella.

He also commented on the announced arrival of British tourists, whose government has lifted all epidemiological measures.

"The biggest problem for us is testing guests on their way home and prescribing mandatory quarantine. So, naturally, that discourages people from going on vacation. However, in the case of Britain, which has almost completely abolished epidemiological measures, logically things should not be asked of their tourists, which means that they could easily come to Croatia on holiday," Stella is optimistic.

He thinks that it would be more correct to measure the number of hospitalized and thus determine completely safe or less safe zones than to look at the total number of infected.

Follow the latest on flights to Croatia HERE and the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia HERE.

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

July the 24th, 2021 - Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros, otherwise a neurosurgeon by profession, has taken to Twitter to praise Croatia for being the safes destination for tourists when compared to the country's typical competition across the Mediterranean.

Despite the Delta variant seeing infection rates shoot up once again across Europe, with the United Kingdom being hit particularly hard despite their decision to drop all restrictions and attempt to live with the novel virus as normally as possible, Croatian numbers are still favourable.

Britain recently moved Croatia to its much desired green list in its own traffic light system, but the ECDC map recently changed the colour of the Croatian coast from green to orange, which isn't the best news as the height of the summer season approaches, but Health Minister Vili Beros isn't letting that get in the way of the generally positive Croatian epidemiological trends.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Health Minister Vili Beros took to social media and published a graph showing a comparison of the Republic of Croatia and the countries that represent its competition in terms of the summer season and tourism.

Vili Beros concluded that we're still the safest destination compared to tourist competitors and uged people to continue getting vaccinated and sticking to all of the current epidemiological measures in order to make sure this summer season is closer to that of pre-pandemic 2019 than to the dire situation we all experienced this time last year.

''Compared to the competitive flagships of European Union tourism, the Republic of Croatia is the safest tourist destination. Let's keep it that way! Do we need a better motive for vaccination and adherence to epidemiological measures than this? Let's stay responsible, let's get vaccinated and let's preserve the tourist season,'' read Vili Beros' tweet which accompanied the graph.

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

July 23, 2021 - The response by the Croatian Institute of Public Health on vaccinating Roma people arrived few hours after TCN published the first article on the subject. TCN, true to its words, will now publish the response as promised to our readers.

A recent TCN report about vaccinating Roma people people saw the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) send the answers that didn't make it out before the publishing of the article. They apologised, stating that it all might have come down to a mistake in communication, suggesting that their reply might have been originally sent to the wrong address (after sending, forwarding, and lots of e-mail addresses involved, one can understand that the answers could have been sent to the wrong email).

Either way, it's fantastic to receive some new info on the matter.

A quick reminder, Veljko Kajtazi, a member of the Croatian parliament, elected as a representative of the Roma community, told TCN that official research of the percentage of vaccinated Roma people hasn't been conducted, but added that he frequently goes ''to out into the field'' and can see that the situation isn't with vaccinating Roma people isn't good.

''If 45% of the Croatian population is vaccinated, I can say that Roma people are a very small percentage of that number,'' commented Kajtazi. He also recognised fake news as the cause of lowered interest in the vaccine.

''Last year, 80% of Roma people wanted to take the vaccine, but today, they're scared and believe in various conspiracy theories. People aren't informed, and social media spreads so much disinformation,'' stated Kajtazi. 

 © Cijepljenje / Vakcinacija

Ethnicity is not a criterion for vaccination

HZJZ responded that they also hadn't conducted any research about attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines among the country's Roma people. They also haven't come up with any statistics for the percentage of vaccinated Roma people.

''During the vaccination process, no differences are made in regards to ethnicity as the vaccination plan doesn't see ethnicity as a criterion for who can take the vaccine and who can't. This is the same with Roma people and for any other ethnic minority,'' explained HZJZ. They added how they asked each of the county branches of the Public health Institute about vaccinating Roma people and the field information confirmed that vaccination is being carried out in accordance with the current vaccination plan.

''So far, there has been no analysis of the number of vaccinated people based on ethnicity at the state level, and local institutes don't keep a record of vaccinated people based on their ethnicity. This doesn't exclude the possibility of retrograde analysis in accordance with available data,'' pointed out HZJZ.

Regarding the isolation of Roma people, HZJZ said that local institutions arranged open points for the vaccination for all Croatian citizens, and they suggest that they had arrived at this point due to the partially inadequate organisation and a lack of financial conditions, not to mention a lack of human resources for vaccination in Roma villages.

However, the trouble of the isolation of Roma villages does seem to be something HZJZ recognises as a challenge in vaccine availability.

''With the goal of accomplishing a higher vaccination rate among the Roma community, we think an optimal solution would be to organise transport for the Roma community to the open vaccination points. But, that isn't in the domain of HZJZ, so we'd like to invite institutions that can help in organising transport to contact their nearest Institute for Public Health. Simply put, these institutes will organise vaccination wherever necessary, but to organise for citizens to come to the vaccination location by some special conditions, the organisational assistance of other contributors is needed,'' they concluded from HZJZ.

With Kajtazi previously stating for TCN that he is regularly in contact with the authorities when it comes to ensuring vaccines, as well as for real scientific information on their safety and efficiency, the organisational issues of transport to the vaccination points could be resolved.

Roma Representative in Croatian Parliament, Veljko Kajtazi, visiting Roma people in Varaždin © Savez Roma u RH "KALI SARA"

With increasing numbers of new cases of infection being noted, the situation may not be as dramatic for the moment but could escalate quickly if Croats fail to recognise the importance of vaccination, not just because of the risk of ending the tourist season early but also due to the potential of another heavy blow to the Croatian healthcare system.

At the time of writing this article, the latest report noted 179 new cases, one death, and 98 recoveries. Additionally, health officials had administered nearly three million vaccine doses. Thus, 1.604 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19, and 1,401,029 have fully been vaccinated (1,360,822 have been double-jabbed plus 40,207 who have received the single-dose Jannsen vaccine), and this makes up 41.614% of the Croatian adult population.

Learn more about travelling to Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic on our TC page.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 22 July, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 3,929  tests performed for coronavirus, 4.5%, that is 179, have turned out to be positive, Croatia's national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Currently, there are 918 active cases, of whom 124 are hospitalised patients, including 14 placed on ventilators. Also, 3,186 people are self-isolating.

In the last 24 hours, there has been one more COVID-related death, bringing the death toll to 8,245.

Since the first registered case of the infection with this novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, as many as 2.231 million persons have been tested and 362,129 people have caught the virus. Of them, 352,966 have recovered to date, including 98 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Vaccine roll-out developments

Croatia has to date administered nearly three million vaccine doses. Thus, 1.604 million people have received at least one dose of vaccines against COVID-19 and 1,401,029 have fully been vaccinated (1,360,822 have been double-jabbed plus 40,207 who have received the single-dose Jannsen vaccine), and this makes up 41.614% of the adult population.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.