May 12, 2021 -  The way things are going, eternal life might be a reality for this Croatian immortal: meet Joža Manolić, second Croatian Prime Minister and the Yugoslavian secret agent that defeated COVID-19 in his 102nd year of life.

With corona spreading through the world like butter on bread, everyone needs to be careful, but especially people who are old and/or have chronic diseases.

So when someone close to 100 survives the infection, it's a news story worthy of international attention.

And, a similar case most recently happened in Croatia. As Index.hr reports, one man, who turned 101 two months ago was fighting with the virus for three weeks. He was never hospitalized but was under the doctor's close surveillance in his home until he finally recovered. And the story spread throughout Croatia as an amazing fight, but realistically, among Croatians, the winner of this epic battle of man vs. virus was known all along. Even when it seems the virus was taking the lead at one point, there was nothing to do but watch with a smug look and think, „He'll bounce back, that virus walked into Pfizer/AstraZeneca/Johnson&Johnson/Moderna cocktail embodied naturally". Despite being the priority for vaccination by all health standards, this corona patient didn't even took the vaccine because, as he said to the press „nobody invited him, and he was waiting for his turn“.

The victorious patient's name is Joža Manolić, and he is in Croatia what Rip Thorn is in the US (only Manolić is much cooler, sorry Rip).  

If you are a paranoid doomsday awaiter, watching the Doomsday clock in panic, which, at the time of writing this article, showed 100 seconds until midnight, Croatians would say you are crazy. As long as Joža Manolić is alive, the world will keep spinning. The ultimate proof corona is bad, but not the end of us. 

screenshot / NewsBar

Croatian James Bond but without replacement actors every few movies

Born on March 22, 1920, Joža Manolić isn't only the person that has seen it all; he has done it all! 

He served as the second Croatian Prime Minister from August 24, 1990, to July 17, 1991, and is one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), but before that, he had an impressive carrier in the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.

When he turned 18, he joined the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and was accepted into the Croatian Communist Party when he was 19. From then, among other things, he was appointed Secretary of the Municipal Committee of SKOJ for Nova Gradiška and was named a member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party in 1940. When WW2 broke out, he was arrested by Ustasha authorities (of the Independent State of Croatia, an ally of Hitler and Mussolini) for spreading communist propaganda in Nova Gradiška. When released from captivity, he moved to Zagreb, where he started cooperating with Yugoslav Partisans and later moved to the partisan-controlled territory. Moving up in the ranks of communist circles, Manolić broke through the very top of the Yugoslav intelligence service. Firstly in OZNA, notorious for eliminating political opponents, and later to UDBA, which was less drastic but still pretty nasty secret service you didn't want to mess with.

The go-to guy to make history, the Croatian James Bond portrayed by only one man, bright and cool. 

There is an expression for the fans of Hajduk Footbal Club that „Hajduk lives forever“ (Hajduk živi vječno). This may be true, but as their game performance shows, it's hard to be as successful in 110 years as Joža Manolić is in 101 years.  

What is even more interesting, Joža Manolić was born in 1920, three months before the conclusion of the Spanish Flu pandemic, and his 100th birthday he celebrated in Zagreb, believe it or not, happened the same day, Zagreb was hit with a powerful 5.5 Richter scale earthquake. With two wars, eight epidemics, and several financial crises survived, Manolić is really the guy you want to be next to regardless of what horrible, death-guaranteed menace is heading your way.

 Immortality recipe: healthy diet and… being a secret agent?

When famous Croatian satirist and editor of the hilarious Newsbar site, Borna Sor (who is not a stranger to TCN) interviewed Manolić in 2016, he asked „the then young 96-year-old Manolić“ how is it possible that he is still alive?

„Every secret agent either lives a long life or is killed ahead of schedule“, said Manolić in good humor.

As Jutarnji list reported, Manolić's DNA was even sequenced to scientifically research the secret of his long life in 2018. The Korean Biotechnology company doesn't really have a precise explanation of his long life, but Manolić has his entire genome on a memory stick, joining other famous people with such an honor, including Nobel prize winner James Watson, actress Glenn Close, TV host Larry King, rock star Ozzy Osbourn and several more. He is the oldest living owner of a driver's license (although he didn't extend it when he turned 100), an active driver, whose clean traffic record can put to shame much younger people causing havoc on the road, including controversial Croatian entrepreneur Tomo Horvatinčić. He was married twice, last time when he was 97 to a then-60year-old woman with whom he was a decade in a relationship. Today he is sadly a widow, outliving both of his wives.

Whether it's any famous Croatian personality or internationally recognized as Eddie Van Halen, Hugh Heffner, or Prince Phillip, there isn't a celebrity death in the country that isn't acknowledged with „Joža Manolić outlived him/her“. As you can imagine, there is an entire group on Facebook dedicated to jokes such as „We need to care for the environment to leave a nicer world to Joža Manolić“, or „Joža Manolić being in Eden before God“.

God explaining to Adam and Eve that he found Joža Manolić when he arrived © Joža Manolić je nadživio

Fascinating and publicly active, the author of this text really wanted to use the news of Manolić defeating corona to do an interview with him for TCN.

„Don't contact him for the love of god! He is over a hundred years old and just got over corona“, said my editor Iva Tatić pleading that I continue to bother diplomats and other people instead of one of the biggest living legends Croatia has ever known.

Well, maybe after he gets some rest from corona, there will be a chance for an interview.

Frankly, I don't worry Joža Manolić is going anywhere, but the question is will I live long enough to do the interview with this pristine gentleman that, while Zagreb has tons of fountains, kept the fountain of youth in his backyard.  

Learn more about history and politics in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about legends of Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 12 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 1,471 coronavirus cases and 40 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

To date 1,898,906 people have been tested for the virus, including 8,773 in the past 24 hours.

The number of active cases is 8,117, including 1,892 hospitalised patients, 215 of whom are on ventilators, while 21,830 people are self-isolating.

To date Croatia has registered 347,094 coronavirus cases and the death toll stands at 7,589, while 331,388 people have recovered from COVID-19, including 1,059 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,186,581 vaccines have been administered, with 919,139 people receiving the first and 267,442 both doses.

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

May the 12th, 2021 - Could Croatia soon relax its anti-epidemic measures? If so, there are three things that the Croatian Civil Protection Directorate must approve in order for anything to alter going forward.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, with the aim of putting a halt to economic downturn and job losses, at yesterday's Civil Protection Directorate of the City of Zagreb's meeting, conclusions were reached on sending an initiative to the National Civil Protection Directorate to revise and amend the decision on the necessary epidemiological measures restricting gatherings and introduce other necessary epidemiological measures and recommendations to prevent transmission of COVID-19 during gatherings.

Proposals for amendments to the decision on the necessary epidemiological measures relate to the following:

- A work permit for catering and hospitality facilities with a detailed prescribed manner of their work organisation

- Permission to organise events and weddings with the rapid testing of guests and external service providers related to the event

- Permission to hold fairs and exhibitions out in the open air

- Given that we already have a lot more knowledge about preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, and a large number of people have been vaccinated, they believe that it is possible to re-apply the recommendations for infection prevention in restaurants both with and without terraces with the gradual easing of restrictions related to COVID-19 that were in force back in May last year, which prescribe the organisation of the facility's work, limit the total number of visitors and alter the method of serving food and drinks.

- In the same such facilities, the method of the work of employees and the serving of guests should be changed, and special rules for restaurants in accommodation facilities and others that have a buffet style of serving food should be provided.

- The possibility of implementing this recommendation would especially help the work of those in that particular industry who don't have outdoor terraces or other open spaces on which to offer their services. The City of Zagreb also supports the Safe Event/Wedding Standard project, which specifies proposals for the rapid testing of guests and external contractors before the event takes place and limiting the number of people present both indoors and outdoors.

On top of all of the above, the Civil Protection Directorate of the City of Zagreb also reiterated the problems caused by the ban on holding fairs and other forms of economic and tourist events, especially those where products are sold or exhibited. The existence of a large number of small companies and family farms (OPGs) depends on the production and sale of products at such open fairs. Since we're currently deep into the season of selling planting material, lettuce, spring onions and the like, and if producers have no way to offer their products, much of it will fail, and customers will settle, among other things, for products from supermarkets where they often buy imported goods, and not Croatian produce..

The City of Zagreb would, in compliance with all of the other epidemiological measures, hire additional covid wardens in order to ensure the proper control over the implementation of the altered epidemiological measures.

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

ZAGREB, 11 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 876 coronavirus cases and 46 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Tuesday.

The number of active cases is 7,745 and includes 1,928 hospitalised patients, 217 of whom are on ventilators, while 21,766 people are self-isolating.

To date 1,890,133 people have been tested for the virus, including 8,839 in the past 24 hours, 345,623 have been infected, 7,549 have died, and 330,329 have recovered from COVID-19, including 1,336 in the past 24 hours.

Over one million vaccine doses administered

To date 1,124,319 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 894,881 people receiving the first and 259,438 both doses.

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

May the 11th, 2021 - As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Croatia is trying to prepare for yet another summer tourist season with large question marks hanging over its head despite the vaccination process picking up both here and in our emitting markets. Croatian events, such as concerts and other such events will be an important topic to look into as the season approaches.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, said on Monday that intensively discussed trial-controlled Croatian events with several visitors would be held this week in the style of rehearsals, and expressed confidence that such pilot projects would go well and that there would be no new cases of infection as a result of them.

"It's something that is being discussed intensively at the moment. There was some information recently from the catering industry and the wedding industry about it. There will be rehearsals, in fact a project in which we will gather two different populations of people in two places,'' said Capak at a press conference within the scope of the Zivjeti zdravo/Live healthy project.

There will be 80 people in one place, and 120 in another. It will bring together people who have been vaccinated, those who have a certificate of having overcome the disease caused by the novel coronavirus or those who will be tested for the virus just before the event takes place. After seven days, they will undertake PCR tests to see if there has been any spread of the disease during the trial Croatian events.

"We don't expect that there will be any new cases of infection as a result of this, and some similar activities have already been carried out in other places in world. Some also did PCR tests after such events and they got good results, there were no new cases. We hope that all this will go well together and that we will enter June in a more relaxed atmosphere,'' said Capak.

Since the rehearsal Croatian events idea is a pilot project, the organisers must know exactly who is coming and those individuas must have all the documents needed for epidemiological monitoring following the event, he explained.

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

ZAGREB, 10 May 2021 - In the last 24 hours, there have been 253 new coronavirus infections in Croatia and 34 people have died, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

Currently, there are 8,251 active cases, including 2,033 who are hospitalized, of whom 229 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of this infection, a total of 344,747 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, and 7,503 have died.

So far, more than 1.88 million tests have been conducted.

A total of 328,993 people have recovered, including 1,589 in the last 24 hours.

There are 24,039 people in self-isolation.

By 9 May, 1,131,607 vaccine doses were administered. A total of 879,312 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 252,295 have received both doses.

May the 10th, 2021 - Those of us who live in the City of Zagreb have obviously not been too fussed by the often less than positive reports about AstraZeneca side effects, be they exaggerated or not, as the Zagreb AstraZeneca doses are used up on residents.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, more of Zagreb's citizens were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine than with Pfizer according to the director of the Dr. Andrija Stampar Institute, Zvonimir Sostar, as Zagreb AstraZeneca vaccines dry up. At the level of the whole of the Republic of Croatia, things are the other way around. Although Croatia ordered far more AstraZeneca vaccines, much more money was spent on Pfizer. More than 600,000 doses of Pfizer were used, nearly 300,000 AstraZeneca vaccines were administered, with the rest being Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

A total of 1.1 million doses were used, of which the first dose was received by 617,000 people, with 250,000 receiving both doses. This means that in the whole of Croatia, only about five percent of the population has been immunised so far, and another 344,494 people have officially been recorded as having become unwell with the novel coronavirus, which is almost nine percent of the population, 24sata writes. There hasn't yet been any sort of officiall made study that says how many people have actually acquired immunity to the virus by contracting it and recovering, but that number is certainly higher than the official one would lead us to believe.

Larger quantities of vaccines should arrive in Croatia this week than were arriving before, and the government's plan is that at least 55 percent of the adult population will be vaccinated by the time summer rolls around. A new daily "record" of vaccination was set on Saturday - with more than 53,000 people getting the vaccine. According to Sostar, Zagreb itself has the capacity to vaccinate 11,000 people a day - at the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam) and in three other similar halls, which will be opened over the coming days precisely for this purpose. Zagreb is home to almost 30 percent of the vaccinated population of the entire country, which is currently the highest in Croatia, Sostar added.

In the 70,000 AstraZeneca doses consumed, he said, there were no serious side effects reported. So far, 2982 reports of suspected side effects of various coronavirus vaccines have been received throughout Croatia, of which 1452 refer to Pfizer, 1292 refer to AstraZeneca, and 235 refer to Moderna. 19 percent of these reports were considered serious, but there have been no confirmed deaths due to any of the coronavirus vaccines currently in use.

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

May the 10th, 2021 - When might Croatia relax at least some of its anti-epidemic measures, which despite being the most liberal in all of Europe, are still causing grief as the pandemic continues? Krunoslav Capak offered some clues going forward.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, said that the coronavirus vaccination rollout here in Croatia was progressing very well, and that if there are enough vaccinations administered, larger and even mass events similar to the ones we once knew so well and took for granted could be organised for people who had been vaccinated or who have tested negative for the novel virus, as reported by N1.

''It isn't going to be happening tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but rest assured, it is being discussed,'' Krunoslav Capak said, adding that all of Croatia's epidemiological measures will remain in force as they are now and that we can be quite sure that nothing will change in the next few weeks.

''With more and more vaccinated people and the arrival of warmer weather, we hope to be able to talk about easing some measures and organising larger gatherings,'' Krunoslav Capak said.

''We set a record the other day, we vaccinated 53,000 people, breaking the record from a week ago when 47,000 people were vaccinated,'' he said, adding that he hopes to be able to even break that record as we go forward in the fight against the novel virus.

''Everyone is committed to getting as many people vaccinated as possible. Our goal is to be about 55 percent of people, we hope more than that and that would be the beginning of a more peaceful and normal life,'' said the director of the CNIPH, emphasising that they are working on education about the virus, the vaccine and a very strong media campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated so that we might return to at least some form of pre-pandemic normality.

Krunoslav Capak said that in the country's tourism sector, which employs about 65,000 people in total, several thousand people have been vaccinated, and that the CNIPH is sending a larger number of doses to Dalmatian and coastal counties and Istria in order to vaccinate as many tourist workers as possible before the summer season begins, which still has many question marks hanging over its head.

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

ZAGREB, 9 May 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 7,060 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia, 9.4% of them, that is 665, have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Sunday.

In the last 24 hours, the COVID-related death toll has risen by 45 to 7,469.

Currently, there are 9,621 active cases of infection with this novel virus. Of them, 2,032 patients are receiving hospital treatment, including 234 patients on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of this infection, a total of 344,494 people have been registered as having contracted coronavirus, and 327,404 have recovered, including 1,704 in the last 24 hours.

So far, more than 1.87 million tests have been conducted.

There are 26,413 people in self-isolation.

Over 1.1 million vaccine doses administered, one in four adult Croats get vaccinated

Since the start of this year, when Croatia began implementing the COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan, 1,117,709 doses have been administered. More than 867,000 people have been inoculated with at least one shot of the COVID vaccine, and over 250,000 have received both doses of the two-dose vaccine.

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 across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section.

May 9, 2021 - TCN is delighted to welcome award-winning blogger Ana-Marija Hota to TCN, bringing a much-needed Croatian voice from Ireland. She starts with a look at the pandemic responses in Ireland and Croatia with a Croatian view from Dublin. 

In March 2020, I found myself in Dublin, Ireland, which has been my home since September 2013.

The pandemic was looming, and it all seemed like a bad dream. In the weeks prior to the lockdown, I was very busy in the hair salon where I was working at the time. It was a bit scary, because many of my clients are international travellers, and being in such proximity to hundreds of them, made me slightly uneasy. So, it felt like a real relief when the owner decided to close, 10 days before the government officially closed our sector.

Immediately afterwards, the government introduced a package of measures, including a pandemic unemployment payment, the first installment of which was in my account the next week. I found myself, like all other parents, in homeschooling/cooking/walking routines. I was missing work, missing my friends. But it was nice to have security, knowing I was getting paid although I was not allowed to work. My husband is a web developer, so he was able to work from home, which gave us an additional sense of stability.

My teenage daughter was slightly sick at the beginning of March, so she was in quarantine. Then I got slightly sick at the end of March, but couldn’t get the COVID test, so we never found out if we catch it, or if it was due to some other viral illness, which seemed more likely. It was still frightening and made us even more determined to try to avoid it at all costs.

In the first wave, almost 2000 people died in the Republic of Ireland, while my native Croatia seemed untouchable. At the time, Croatian egos were flying high, and there were those theories about genetic superiority and Tuberculosis vaccines. From my perspective, Croatia was safe because the government had introduced strict travel measures early, and people responded well. I was proud of that fact and it made sense; most of us had experienced war, hiding in basements and shelters and our fight or flight responses are heightened, you could call it collective PTSD, but that´s a taboo subject in Croatia. We´re all perfectly fine and tough, allegedly.

As the summer of 2020 was approaching, I was shocked with images from Croatia. Ireland’s bars, pubs, stayed closed at all times, and Croatians were expecting to host millions of tourists, nightlife was like before the pandemic, everyone I know lived a life like before the pandemic. I was constantly worried about my Mum, my aunts and uncles and I felt like people are letting each other down. Even to this day, I feel like we are a universe apart, Ireland is in a third lockdown, numbers are better again, while Croatians are dying at faster rates, and it seems that nobody cares. COVID theories seem to be spreading faster than the “bura” wind. I have never been supportive of Croatian government and institutions, I always felt they do not really care about citizens, and the way Ireland is handling this pandemic has confirmed my suspicions. Empathy is on high levels here, apart from some exemptions, and the health and wellbeing of citizens matter.

Ireland takes care of its citizens, their aspirations and dreams. Two hundred different nationalities living together and sharing this small island, mostly in peace with a good sense of community.

I had a lot of time to think, and I realized: I am happier living a full year in a lockdown in Ireland, than I would be living freely in Croatia. Because in this country, I feel safe, I feel respected and protected. I feel like I matter as a human being. I´ve changed so much since I came here, bad things also taught me some things. I discovered you can be a white European and another white European can discriminate against you based on race. That one was new to me.

Do I miss holidays in Croatia? Of course I do, I haven’t seen my family and friends since the summer of 2019, and it looks like it might be another year before I visit again. Currently in Ireland, it is illegal to go on holiday abroad, or to even leave the county. But even if I could, I would not go, not before my whole family is vaccinated, which will be some time away, considering vaccines are still not approved for under 16s. Croatia doesn´t look appealing to us right now, with high rates of infections and low levels of social distancing.

Also, I feel deeply grateful for this new home of mine. In January last year, we bought our own home. I feel Ireland is my forever home and I´m happy to support and give back to the Irish economy, before I spend it elsewhere, some other year.

You can follow Ana-Marija in English or Croatia on her blog:

https://life-in-dublin.com/

https://zivot-u-dublinu.com/