ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - Croatia has registered 691 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours while 12 people have died as a consequence, and currently there are 4,475 active cases in the country, the national COVID-19 response team reported on Tuesday. 

Of the total number of active cases, 858 are hospitalised patients, 78 of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of COVID-19 was registered in Croatia, a total of 251,865 people have been affected with the virus.

The death toll in that period has reached 5,697 while 241,693 people have recovered, 546 of whom have recovered in the past 24 hours.

There are currently 17,271 people in self-isolation.

A total of 1,438,689 tests have been conducted to date, including 7,347 in the past 24 hours.

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

March the 16th, 2021 - Croatian mass tourism, which was a burning topic over the last few years and which now seems to be little more than a distant memory as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, won´t return this summer. Some destinations, however, will more than likely prosper more than they did last summer.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as the warmer weather finally approaches, one of the concerns of the Croatian authorities and the tourism sector is how to stop the spread of the coronavirus and vaccinate as many Croatian residents as possible by the beginning of the tourist season. A lot will depend on the epidemiologists, with whom the setting up of tourist testing points has been agreed, and the development of the situation with the "vaccination certificate" at the level of the European Union (EU) will continue being monitored.

Economic analyst Damir Novotny says that the change in the structure of demand will definitely continue, ie what is available in terms of destinations which can be reached by car will continue to experience tourism, which means that Croatia can expect guests from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as Poles who like to travel from the north all the way to the Croatian Adriatic, according to local portal Glas Slavonije.

“There will be mostly people arriving by car, there won´t be much air transport going on, there won´t really be any groups of tourists but individual trips. This then reduces total tourist spending by 30, 40, maybe even 50 percent. It depends on how much capacity will be ready for those individual guests who have different requirements and it is very likely that the camps will be very well filled, hotels will probably do well, and for other types of accommodation... it is difficult to say,” predicted Novotny.

He believes that vaccination alone will not play a big role in tourism, as the effects of vaccination can be expected possibly next year only. His assessment is that nothing particularly spectacular, but by no means tragic, is likely to happen in tourism, and that it will be somewhere around last year's level. This means that the Croatian mass tourism we loved to complain about not so long ago will not be reborn this summer season either.

According to economic expert Luka Brkic, he also believes that the focus will be on Croatian destinations that can be reached by car, and that guests from Slovenia, Austria and Germany can be counted on.

"Great Britain is a very important market for Croatian tourism, and they mostly come here by air, but that is questionable, even though they have a high level of vaccination. Because after each opening up, things just close down again quickly," explained Brkic for Glas Slavonije.

Croatian mass tourism had a tremendously negative effect on destinations like Dubrovnik, which must now find other ways to bring in the cash after lying on its laurels for far too long.

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March the 16th, 2021 - The Croatian working population has been dealt an extremely heavy blow by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, especially given the fact that tourism is the country´s strongest economic branch and the vast majority of the Croatian working population works in a sector which is more or less closed down entirely at the moment.

The Croatian Government´s covid support which was sent out to employers and business owners in order to preserve jobs and prevent as many layoffs as possible has been utilised, but whether or not that will continue to be enough with no end in sight is becoming more and more of a burning question.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, although the total number of employees at the beginning of this year was lower than it was one year ago, in January, as well as in December, there was an increase in employment. Compared to the last quarter of last year, in the first month of this year saw an increase of 0.9 percent, with employers still receiving subsidies for preserving jobs for a significant number of employees in activities affected by the coronavirus crisis.

As such, back at the end of 2020, such economic measures covered 10.3 percent of the total number of the Croatian working population who are employed by a business entity, while in November, this percentage stood at 9.8 percent, and for example during the summer months (when the epidemiological picture was significantly better) it stood at about four percent.

At the same time, in the review of current labour market developments in the Croatian National Bank´s latest bulletin, it has been pointed out that the number of unemployed persons at the beginning of 2021 continued to decrease at an accelerated rate compared to the end of 2020 due to increased outflows from the Croatian Employment Service.

Despite this, the number of unemployed people across Croatia back in January was 25 thousand higher people than it was back during the same month last year. The administrative unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent of the workforce in January, after standing at 8.9 percent back in December. Last January, that same rate was at 7.1 percent.

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ZAGREB, 15 March 2021 - The Rijeka Clinical Hospital Centre on Monday received 12 new ventilators that were procured by the Health Ministry with the use of EU funds.

The hospital's director, Alen Ružić, thanked the ministry, government and European Commission for the valuable equipment, underscoring that it would significantly improve working conditions at the hospital and contribute to better patient care as well as improving the quality of treatment.

The ventilators will be put to use immediately in various wards at the hospital but primarily to relieve the work of the respiratory centre with COVID-19 patients, in ICU, and at neurology and pediatric wards. The hospital now has about 60 ventilators which are sufficient to cover the current number of patients.

Health Ministry State-Secretary Željko Plazonić, who chairs the KBC Rijeka steering board, said the ventilators were obtained through a procurement process conducted by the European Commission. They are part of a contingent of 169 ventilators procured for COVID-19 wards in health institutions throughout Croatia. The price of each ventilator is €24,000, Plazonić added.

Answering reporters' questions, Ružić said that due to the new wave of COVID-19 the hospital's level of preparedness had been increased and if need be it would be prepared to open a new COVID ward that would be separated from other wards. He added that due to the increased number of COVID-19 patients, the number of other non-urgent surgical procedures would be partially reduced.

ZAGREB, 15 March, 2021 - The number of new coronavirus cases in Croatia has increased by 28.8% on a weekly level as steps are being taken to ensure a fairer distribution of vaccines at EU level, the national coronavirus response team told a press conference on Monday.

"In the past week have had 4,566 new cases, with the weekly number of cases increasing by 28.8%. The incidence rate is 198.4, the lowest being in Istria and the highest in the Dubrovnik area," Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) director Krunoslav Capak said.

Increasing presence of the British variant

The results of sequencing of 355 samples have shown that the British variant of the coronavirus was found in 204 samples, the Czech variant was detected in 45 samples and the South African variant in four. Two people infected with the South African variant were travelling from Mexico to Croatia via Turkey, and two persons have been infected in Croatia.

As for vaccination against COVID-19, Capak said that initial talks had been conducted with a Chinese pharmaceutical company and that more information about the Chinese vaccine and results of clinical studies would be made available in subsequent stages of the talks.

Capak said that Pfizer was expected to deliver 23,000 doses of its vaccine weekly this month, while AstraZenica was to have delivered a million doses in the first quarter of the year, but failed to do so.

"While other countries ordered the maximum number of doses from manufacturers, we did not and that's why we have a shortfall. We are taking steps to ensure a fairer distribution or a correction for those who have been short-changed by AstraZeneca," he said.

As for vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the HZJZ estimates that fewer than 30% of people in Croatia have refused this vaccine, contrary to media reports, Capak said.

EU legislation must be complied with in vaccine procurement

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that Croatia did not want to close its door to alternative ways of vaccine procurement, including the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, but stressed that EU legislation must be complied with.

"If EMA (the European Medicines Agency) refuses the Russian vaccine, I doubt that anyone, even HALMED (the Croatian Agency for Medicines and Medicinal Products), will decide otherwise. ... We are awaiting EMA's reply to the letter from our prime minister," Beroš said.

Speaking of problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Beroš cited a World Health Organisation report saying that over 280 million people across the globe have been administered this vaccine and that there are no indicators suggesting that this vaccine is responsible for severe disorders or deaths.

As for thromboembolic incidents, Beroš said that nine patients with thrombosis or pulmonary embolism are hospitalised in Croatia daily and many of them die. "There can be a connection between such cases and vaccination, but it is important that medical professionals set clear criteria in ruling out or confirming the connection between vaccination and an unwanted event."

Increased vaccine deliveries announced

The head of the national coronavirus response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that all EU member states were dissatisfied with the pace of vaccine delivery, adding that optimistic news was coming from Brussels about resumption of AstraZeneca vaccine deliveries. In addition, Pfizer has increased production of its vaccine, which will improve countries' vaccine supplies, he added.

Božinović dismissed speculation that Croatia would have been better off had it entered into direct negotiations with vaccine manufacturers, bypassing the European Commission. "All member states have authorised the Commission to negotiate, and I think that's the only right way."

He said he was confident that the Commission would emerge from this difficult situation with new experience because the health policy was not part of the EU's integrated policy. It has turned out that only with a common, solidarity-based approach can the EU deal with the pandemic, he noted.

Božinović said that the EU was gathering information about the capacity of each member state for vaccine production, stressing the need for investment in public healthcare, science and research.

"The manufacture and delivery of vaccines should be stepped up, and the world should not be taken by surprise by an outbreak of a new pandemic in the future," Božinović said.

Substantial decline in mortality among elderly people after vaccination

The director of Zagreb's Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić, underlined the importance of vaccination for elderly people, saying that a substantial decline in COVID-19-related deaths among elderly people after vaccination had been observed across the EU.

ZAGREB, 15 March 2021 - Of  2,563 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia in the last 24 hours, 129, that is 5%, have returned positive, and currently there are 4,342 active cases, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Monday.

Of those active cases, 874 are hospitalised patients, including 72 patients placed on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia reported its first registered case of the infection with the novel virus, there have been 5,685 deaths linked to this disease, including eight fatalities in the last 24 hours.

To date, 1,431,342 people have been tested for SARS-CoV-2, and 251,174 have turned out to be positive. Of them, 241,147 have recovered so far, including 583 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 17,840 people are self-isolating.

To read more about Coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

March the 15th, 2021 - Croatian Health Minister Beros has spoken out about the EU vaccination rollout and the possibility of Croatia getting its hands on the Russian Sputnik vaccine without needing permission to do so from the EU. Theoretically, he says, it is possible.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the question of whether Croatia is already experiencing the third wave of the pandemic, what is going on with mass vaccination, a look at the country´s epidemiological measures and the tourist season were questions answered by Health Minister Vili Beros on HRT.

This week we record 28 percent more infections than we did last week...

¨On the 384th day since the beginning of the pandemic in Croatia, apart from the newly infected, today there are 855 patients who were hospitalised, which is as many as 50 more than yesterday, meaning that in the last 24 hours, 92 people were hospitalised. This indicates that the virus remains very much around us and that we all need to be careful and act together. It´s extremely important that we follow the basic measures because these are factors that can prevent the spread of infection. In the context of the upcoming tourist season, this is exactly what needs to be constantly mentioned. We´re all responsible for what will happen tomorrow,¨ Minister Beros said.

When asked if there will be another tightening up of the measures at the national level if this trend of an increasing number of patients continues, Minister Beros stated that the National Civil Protection Headquarters has been emphasising the role of county headquarters since back in autumn and is trying to encourage staff to think locally. An example of this, he says, is down in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, their headquarters concluded that something had to change there and he thanked them for that. He added that they will think more about local action depending on the epidemiological situation, than about horisontal measures that would apply to the whole of Croatia.

¨328 thousand doses of vaccine were used and 257 thousand citizens have been vaccinated. 56.7 percent of these doses were related to those in the second vaccination group, ie the elderly and the chronically ill. The Croatian healthcare system is able to vaccinate even more, but things are being limited by the quantities of vaccines coming into Croatia that are less than what was agreed on and expected. The Prime Minister and everyone else are making efforts to respond to these challenges as well,¨ Minister Beros said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine

Minister Beros emphasised the importance of scientific evaluation of everything related to vaccination. He said that approximately a thousand people are hospitalised annually in Croatia for various sorts of thrombosis or embolism. Another 2,200 due to pulmonary embolism, and a total of 3,200 of our fellow citizens, or 9 are hospitalised daily due to thrombo-embolic incidents. From that, he notes, a certain part of them does die and will continue to die. Therefore, given the number of vaccinated people, it is unfortunately to be expected that such deaths will continue. It is important that side effects are reported frequently so that more research can be carried out.

¨The WHO has announced recently that over 268 million people in the world have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and that no significant deviations, incidents or deaths related to this vaccine have been found. This has been confirmed by our British colleagues who have extensive experience and a large number of vaccinated people,¨ the Minister added.

The Russian Sputnik vaccine and Croatia

¨We´re still oriented towards joint procurement through the European Commission (EC) and we believe that the circumstances will improve. Recent announcements by vaccine manufacturers that they will increase doses are in favour of this. However, if this is not the case, we will have to orient ourselves and organise ourselves towards some other manufacturers. Croatia has made contact with the Russian health authorities and some documentation has been received. Tomorrow we will start the evaluation process in HALMED. Whether this documentation is complete and how long the procedure will last, I cannot say at this moment in time,¨ said Minister Beros.

When asked what should happen for Croatia to start purchasing vaccines on its own, he answered that several factors are crucial:

¨This will depend on whether the EC will take our remarks into account in regard to the need for corrective mechanisms that will balance out the delivery of vaccines, furthermore, will the manufacturers, as announced, increase those deliveries, all these are elements that will play their role at some point. The task of this Government is to provide citizens with a safe, effective and quality vaccine. When we´re sure that a vaccine is like that, then we will open the doors to that vaccine, but not before.

It is theoretically possible to import the Russian vaccine through intervention imports. If necessary, I will personally support it because it will mean that European mechanisms have failed, which I believe will not happen,¨ concluded Minister Beros.

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March the 15th, 2021 - The Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic has expressed his sorrow for having not ordered more doses of the coronavirus vaccine and his frustration at how things are playing out.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, in an interview with the influential European news portal Politico, the Croatian PM said that looking at things from today's perspective, he is sorry that he did not order larger quantities of coronavirus vaccine for Croatia, but also explained how difficult it was to guess which pharmaceutical company would be the fastest to register and the most successful in mass production.

"In times of crisis, there´s always pressure to resolve something. But then comes the moment after the crisis and someone asks you: we have 4 million inhabitants, and you ordered vaccines for 14 million people; why?¨ the Croatian PM said in a frank and open conversation in Brussels on Friday. Plenkovic said that the idea of the ​​joint procurement of vaccines at the EU level, instead of individual procurement at the national level, was "very, very good", despite how badly it is going.

In that interview, the Croatian PM also spoke about the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, a document that all EU member state governments should send to the European Commission (EC) by the end of April so that they can start using the money from the new coronavirus recovery fund. When asked when Croatia could spend its first euro from this new fund, which is responsible for doubling the money that Croatia has had at its disposal through all other EU funds, Plenkovic answered that it will unfortunately not be this year.

"I have a feeling it will be early next year. The process is complicated. Unless it’s helicopter money, it’s very difficult and complex. You need a plan, a project, verification, a tender, implementation, documentation. We´ll gladly spend it if things go quicker, too, but if I´m being realistic… ", Politico writes, quoting the words of the Croatian PM. The Commission predicts that the first advance from the recovery fund could be paid out to EU member states in July, but that the situation as Plenkovic predicted will likely be the one which takes place. He gained that view after meetings with the leading individuals of the EC.

The Prime Minister also talked about whether the pandemic can slow down Croatia's path to the Eurozone, given that both the deficit and public debt are affected.

"The only thing I´m sorry about is the fiscal policy," said the Croatian PM, adding that we have "moved away from consolidation and sound public finances" in order to reduce the economic damage caused by the pandemic. Croatia therefore plans to use twice the amount of EU funds to boost its economic recovery, but also to return to the 2017-2019 framework, when my government had a budget surplus, the prime minister told Politico.

"To enter the Eurozone, we must meet the rules set out in the basic agreement. It´s very difficult to get an exemption from the contract ", said Plenkovic, referring to the situation that Vecernji list also wrote about in a recent interview with EC Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis. This is a situation in which all EU member states enjoy the benefits of temporarily suspended deficit and public debt rules, but the fact that these rules are currently suspended through the Stability and Growth Pact does not formally and legally suspend them as the Maastricht criteria spells out in that contract, which should be satisfied by any nation which wants to join the Eurozone.

Politico added that the Croatian PM, immediately after noting that it is difficult to get an exemption from the basic EU treaty, joked: "It´s probably possible, with a smart lawyer“ "

The Prime Minister concluded that his government still aims to bring Croatia into both the Eurozone and into Schengen by the end of its term, ie by the second half of 2024. That deadline is "difficult, but reasonable", assured the Prime Minister.

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ZAGREB, 14 March 2021 - In the past 24 hours 561 new coronavirus cases and seven COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID response team said on Sunday.

There are currently 4,804 active cases, including 855 hospitalised patients, of whom 72 are on ventilators, and 18,511 people are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 251,045 coronavirus cases to date, 5,677 COVID deaths and 240,564 recoveries, including 542 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,428,779 people have been tested for the virus, including 6,221 in the past 24 hours.

To read more about Coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 13 March 2021 - The head of Croatia's Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Services (HALMED), Siniša Tomić, said on Saturday that according to preliminary data he did not believe that there was a connection between the death of a 91-year-old woman and her inoculation with AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID.

The HALMED regulator and the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) are supposed to adopt their joint conclusion on this matter next week; he told the national broadcaster HTV on Saturday evening.

HALMED is looking into a 7 March report of a fatal pulmonary embolism in the 91-year-old woman three days after receiving a shot of AstraZeneca.

According to Tomić, this case will also be on the agenda of the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Tomić said that to date, 14 reports had been submitted in Croatia about side effects with death outcome after inoculations against coronavirus. In nine cases, the reports were sent after the inoculation with the Pfizer vaccine and in five with AstraZeneca.

In six cases, it has been ruled out that the death might be associated with inoculation. In two cases, this relationship does not seem probable, and in another six cases, the authorities are waiting for more supporting documents.

To read more about Coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.