ZAGREB, 20 June, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 58 coronavirus cases and five deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Sunday.

There are 597 active cases, including 288 hospitalised patients, 25 of whom are on ventilators, while 3,868 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 359,173 coronavirus cases to date, including 8,174 deaths and 350,402 recoveries, of which 122 in the past 24 hours.

To date 2,110,485 persons have been tested for the virus, including 4,340 in the past 24 hours, and 2,355,050 vaccines have been administered, with 1,449,819 persons receiving the first dose and 905,231 both.

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

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ZAGREB, 19 June 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 84 coronavirus cases and one death have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are 666 active cases, including 291 hospitalized patients, 24 of whom are on ventilators.

To date, Croatia has registered 359,115 coronavirus cases, including 8,169 deaths and 350,280 recoveries, with 117 in the past 24 hours.

To date, 2,106,145 people have been tested for the virus, including 4,316 in the past 24 hours.

As for vaccination, 2,318,428 doses have been administered, including 1,442,925 persons who received one dose and 875,503 both.

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.

June the 19th, 2021 - If there is one question that has been firmly stuck on the lips of more or less everyone across the world for the past year or so, it is more than likely something along the lines of: when will the pandemic end? With hopes that vaccination will finally end this dark chapter that has held the entire planet in its grip, when will Croatia make its own declaration?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Minister of Health, Vili Beros, has spoken about the topic in further detail at a recently held press conference of the National Civil Protection Directorate, which has become the daily norm since the beginning of 2020 when the virus struck the country.

"Bozinovic said that Beros is going to be the one do declare the pandemic end, at the suggestion of the Croatian Institute of Public Health. That's exactly right. That will happen when we deveop enough immunity to the point where the profession says that we're safe from the spread of the virus.

"Today's measures are a turning point and are indeed finally leading us towards the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Let's look around, in Europe we're witnessing events that remind us of the old normal, covid certificates are working on guaranteeing our safety, we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but we all need to get vaccinated,'' he added.

"We've been noticing that some of our fellow citizens are planning to be vaccinated only in autumn, that's a wrong approach, at this moment in time, it's known that the vaccine offers protection from the virus for at least eight months. We're doing something much more important - by vaccinating people we're preventing the appearance of a new wave of infection by the time autumn rolls around,'' Vili Beros concluded, having confirmed that he will be the one to declare the pandemic end here in Croatia.

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 centres up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and choose your preferred language.

June 18th, 2021 - The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has released an updated map of Europe, Croatia no longer red!  

Slavonia County, Karlovac County, and Moslavina are now marked in green, while the rest of Croatia is orange Like Metković reports. 

The ECDC map is updated weekly using data from Thursday at 23:59. Colors for individual areas are determined by combining the number of confirmed cases of infection in the past 14 days per 100 thousand inhabitants, and the percentage of the population tested.

ECDC Twitter

Belgium is no longer in the red zone on the new map, and northern Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary have moved to the green zone. Much of France has moved to the orange zone.

Not all European countries use this map to decide on travel measures, but some, such as Lithuania, Croatia, and Cyprus, do. However, although other countries use their own models and parameters, the map has a symbolic weight and can significantly affect tourism.

According to the first data from the eVisitor system, today, the number of 200,000 tourists in one day was exceeded. Namely, 213,000 tourists are currently staying in Croatia, of which 183,000 are foreign tourists and 30,000 domestic.

"This is a confirmation that tourists see it as a safe destination for their stay and vacation. We have created all the preconditions for that, and compliance with epidemiological measures is still crucial to maintain this favorable epidemiological situation and achieve a successful season," wrote Minister of Tourism Nikolina Brnjac on Facebook today.

EU member states agreed late last week to ease travel restrictions during the summer and fully vaccinated tourists will be exempt from vaccination or isolation. In contrast, the list of European regions from which it is "safe to travel" will be expanded. 

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.

ZAGREB, 17 June 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 5,192 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia, 95 (1.8%) have returned positive, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by three to 8,165.

There are currently 745 active cases, and 342 of them are hospitalized patients, including 25 placed on ventilators. As many as 4,344 are self-isolating.

Since the first registered case of the infection with this novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, 2,097,393 people have been tested, and 358,918 of them have contracted the virus. To date 350,008 have recovered, including 148 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, 1,428,340 people have been given at least one shot against this novel virus, and 790,856 have fully been inoculated.

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 centres up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 16 June, 2021 - Slower salary growth halted the growth of hourly labour costs in the EU in the first quarter of 2021, while in Croatia labour costs increased for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Eurostat data show on Wednesday.

In the first quarter of 2021, the hourly labour costs rose by 1.7% in the EU, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2020, hourly labour costs increased by 3.2%.

The costs of hourly wages and salaries increased by 2.6%, after growing 3.8% in Q4 2020.

The costs of salaries increased the most in arts, entertainment and recreation (+8.3%), followed by accommodation and food service activities (+6.1%).

The costs of contributions at the start of this year went up 1%.

The highest increases in hourly labour costs in Q1 2021 were registered in Lithuania (+12%) and Slovenia (+11.1%), while the lowest were in Austria (+0.3%) and Belgium (+0.9%).

In Croatia, they went up 2.3%, for the first time since Q2 2020. In Q4 2020, they dropped 1.1%. The costs of hourly wages and salaries increased 2.3% after falling 0.2% at the end of last year. The costs of contributions went up 2.2%, after falling 6.4% at the end of 2020.

The largest decrease in hourly labour costs in Q1 2021 was registered in Malta (-2.6%), followed by Ireland (-2.5%).

For more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 16 June, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, Croatia has logged 146 new COVID-19 cases after conducting 5,485 tests, and two infected persons have died, the national COVID-19 response team said on Wednesday.

Currently, there are 801 active cases in the country, including 349 hospitalised patients, of whom 28 are on ventilators, and 4,774 people are in self-isolation.

To date, there have been a total of 358,823 registered cases of the contagion, 8,162 people have died as a consequence while 349,860 have recovered.

A total of 2,092,201 people have been tested for the virus to date, including 5,485 in the past 24 hours.

As of 15 June, a total of 2,196,552 doses of vaccines have been administered, with 1,427,566 people receiving at least one dose and 768,986 people receiving both vaccine doses.

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

ZAGREB, 16 June, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday at the forum "Human Rights in the Coronavirus Crisis" that encroaching on the intimate space of human freedoms required a decision of the parliament, which he would have let it make if he were prime minister during the crisis.

Milanović said at the forum at the Faculty of Law that "in this crisis, we are not talking about human rights but about fundamental human freedoms."

"My right to breathe, to sneeze, to walk, to move - that is my human freedom. In order to affect that deeply intimate space, it is necessary to have a decision of a representative body," Milanović said.

In his presentation, he referred to Articles 16 and 17 of the Constitution and said that the coronavirus situation had met the conditions for declaring a state of emergency.

"Article 17... refers to a state of emergency, imminent danger of war or a natural disaster. It doesn't matter if this virus, and a virus is a natural fact and attacks a living organism, originated as a fact of zoonosis or was released by the Chinese or escaped from the laboratory, it makes no difference. That is a serious matter. It puts lives in danger. If that doesn't meet the conditions (for declaring a state of emergency), nothing does," Milanović said.

He added that if the coronavirus crisis had happened during his term as prime minister, he would have let the parliament vote in the relevant decisions, which would result in greater public trust, instead of having a COVID-19 response team do it.

Everything we watched for a year and a half was surreal, he added. He praised the fact that the vaccine was produced so quickly, adding that everything else was wrong.

Ombudswoman: Citizens had numerous complaints

According to Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, during the pandemic citizens had questions and complaints related to passes, self-isolation, access to health care since family doctors were not available to them and their examinations were cancelled, and they also sent questions related to the right to work, that is, to work from home or work in the office.

In the past few months, the ombudswoman has been receiving questions about vaccination and in the past few weeks, about COVID passports.

She also said that the frequent changes in the anti-epidemic measures and vague recommendations had led to an increase in dissatisfaction and fear among citizens, which had further undermined trust in institutions.

The ombudswoman said that there were solutions and that her report for 2020 had been discussed in the parliament, and now she hoped that the recommendations would be implemented.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 15 June (Hina) - In the past 24 hours, Croatia has logged 96 new COVID cases after conducting 5,924 tests, and eight infected persons have died, the national COVID response team reported on Tuesday.

Currently, there are 767 active cases in the country, including 372 hospitalised patients, of whom 28 are on ventilators, and 5,352 people are in self-isolation.

To date, there have been a total of 358,677 registered cases of the contagion, 8,160 people have died as a consequence while 349,750 have recovered.

A total of 2,086,716 people have been tested for the virus to date, including 5,924 in the past 24 hours.

As of 14 June, a total of 2,164,874 doses of vaccines have been administered, with 1,419,924 people receiving at least one dose and 744,950 people receiving both vaccine doses.

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

June the 15th, 2021 - Just what needs to be done to speed up economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic? Respected Croatian economist Vedran Sosic says that we need to take a serious look at the number of so-called zombie companies as the pandemic draws to a close, and limit them.

As Ana Blaskovic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the pace of economic recovery could vary very significantly between countries, said the Croatian National Bank's chief economist Vedran Sosic in Rovinj at the 9th meeting of the region's governors, primarily due to their different economic structures and aid effectiveness. The state has helped companies out financially and with various job preservation measures, but now it's crucial that we work to reduce the number of zombie companies, and the speed of recovery will also depend on how much households will spend on ''forced'' accumulated savings due to the global crisis.

Vedran Sosic gave a presentation entitled "Post-Covid Syndrome in the Economy and Financial System: How do we Deal with It?" explaining that the current crisis will spur some structural changes in numerous economies, and that economic policies will play a key role in preserving growth potential, especially through support for companies and workers in the most affected industries.

The business of companies has been hit by restrictions, epidemiological measures have brought with them higher costs, and at the same time their demand has decreased, supply chains have been disrupted and general insecurity has increased. While strong fiscal support has helped businesses, the question now is of the optimal rate of the withdrawal of that support.

“These subsidies have reduced the insolvency rates of companies even below the levels normal for good times, which, among other things, has enabled an increase in the number of zombie companies that are squeezing out healthy companies and the damage is growing in the long run. Reforms aimed at reducing zombification are vital,'' Vedran Sosic said.

In the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the savings rate rose with a simultaneous decline in investment. "If households don't spend their accumulated additional savings, it could negatively affect the speed of recovery," the CNB chief economist said, adding that the pandemic and restrictive measures limited private consumption, while state aid compensated for part of the loss of income, and high levels of uncertainty generally reduced the propensity to spend.

"All this has led to ''forced'' savings in addition to the precautionary savings common during times of crisis. Although it isn't possible to determine exactly who saved the most during the crisis, an increase in savings was probably pronounced among those with higher incomes who will probably not significantly increase their spending during the recovery,'' said Vedran Sosic.

He also referred to the residential property market, saying that it had shown a level of resilience, meaning that the price levels more or less remained the same throughout the crisis. Here in Croatia, residential real estate prices rose by 7.7 percent last year. At the same time, due to new trends related directly to the pandemic, such as increased work from home and an increase in online shopping, prices for commercial real estate have fallen.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.