February the 20th, 2021 - Could tourism in the extreme Croatian south grow despite the ongoing issues with leisure travel and the lack of flights? The extreme Croatian south remains, until Peljesac bridge is completed, cut off from the rest of the country by Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina's only coastline, and as such has always been, primarily, a flight destination.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, when it comes to tourist accommodation in super-luxury villas, after almost experiencing none of the coronavirus crisis last year, the forecasts are now even better, and the Zadar agency Croatia Luxury Rent (CLR), one of the strongest players in the market with about 420 villas across the Adriatic, is predicting further growth the number of arrivals of guests with higher purchasing power.

This started happening last summer: such guests could not travel to their usual more distant destinations, so they decided to spend their summer holidays in various destinations across Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.

A kind of acceleration in the number of reservations is expected during the spring, and guests are still being cautious, according to the owner and director of CLR Josip Stulic, in waiting for travel conditions and border regimes to be more clearly defined, ie an improvement in the overall epidemiological situation. He believes that the best filled accommodation and holiday homes will be in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Istria counties, then Zadar, Sibenik-Knin County and finally Split-Dalmatia County.

"The extreme Croatian south, at least within the context of the total number of arrivals in the coming season, should gradually grow and certainly will not fail at the level of private accommodation, although it is evident that destinations like Dubrovnik have attracted guests who arrive by air for years now, and their numbers will be significantly less in the coming years.

Private accommodation, along with nautical tourism and camps, is the foundation that should be the backbone of success in the coming seasons in terms of income and the number of arrivals. Unfortunately, for some time yet, we won't be enriched all that much by the arrival of airline tourists, which will be present in the form of stagnation not only in our country but also globally, but because of that, the number of places hosting guests who drive here along our coast will grow,'' explained Stulic.

With last year's occupancy rate of 86 percent of CLR and following 2020's realisation of any domestic tourism at all, it is predicted that the tourist season for 2021 should be more successful than expected.

Croatia's great advantage as a destination is its geographical position, which, as he pointed out, should lead to good results in the future, assuming that the situation with the coronavirus will stabilise in the coming months, primarily due to the ongoing vaccination process across the globe.

"Looking at the aforementioned fact that Croatia is brilliantly positioned and extremely well connected with emitting markets within the region, it is to be expected that this information will become crucial. All of the above should happen if there are no unforeseen geopolitical events that could change it,'' stated Josip Stulic.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages.

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

February 19, 2021 – The National Civil Protection Headquarters said they suspect ten more cases of a new coronavirus variant and that we may even have a Croatian variant. Regarding the epidemiological measures, Davor Božinović pointed out there is still no relaxation.

Today, the National Civil Protection Headquarters held a press conference on the coronavirus situation in Croatia. In the last 24 hours, 388 new SARS-CoV-2 virus infection cases were recorded, and the number of active cases in Croatia today is 2313. Among them, 798 patients are in hospital, of which 73 are on a respirator. Eight people died.

Since February 25, 2020, when the first case of infection was recorded in Croatia, 239,254 people infected with the new coronavirus have been recorded, of which 5,407 have died. A total of 231,534 people have recovered, of which 358 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 11,725 people in self-isolation. To date, 1,293,415 people have been tested, of which 4,986 in the last 24 hours.

Croatia has the third-lowest incidence in Europe

At the press conference, the latest data on vaccination in Croatia were presented – 93,012 people were vaccinated, and 56,963 people received two doses of the vaccine, meaning that the vaccination was completed for them.

Krunoslav Capak stated that today's number of new cases is 388, a week ago there were 371 new cases, and two weeks ago 549 new cases.

"This is the first time in more than a month that the daily figure is slightly higher than a week ago. The current incidence is 111.4. The highest is in Split-Dalmatia and the lowest in Istria. In the EU, Croatia is in third place. Only Finland and Denmark have a lower incidence than Croatia. The Czech Republic currently has the highest," Capak said.

New quantities of all three vaccines to arrive next week

There were 832 reports of suspected vaccine side effects: 781 on Pfizer, 33 on Moderna, and 18 on AstraZeneca.

Next week, we will get 23,400 Pfizer vaccines. Moderna will send 16,000 doses on February 25. We will get 52,658 doses from AstraZeneca. By the end of March, it will be just over 700,000 doses.

"It is difficult to predict the end of the second phase, but this group includes about one million and 200-300 thousand people, but we do not know how many want to be vaccinated. The vaccination platform will start soon, from which we will draw data, and we will know how many people want to be vaccinated in the second phase, so we will be able to say how much time we will need," Capak said.

Health Minister Vili Beroš referred to the possibility of importing Russian vaccines. He says it all depends on the dynamics of vaccine arrival. However, if the European Medicines Agency does not approve the Russian vaccine, HALMED (Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices) may intervene to introduce such a vaccine. They are considering the possibility and have approached the Russian authorities for additional documentation.

'We expect that the situation will be much better before the summer'

Capak commented on the vaccination outcome.

"It is very difficult to estimate when we will vaccinate most of the population. We also have people who have survived COVID-19. We do not know how long the immunity lasts in those people. We do not know how long the immunity from the vaccine will last. When our immune system rises, there will not be so many sensitive people that the virus can spread quickly. We expect that the situation will be much better before the summer. If you get vaccinated with AstraZeneca, you probably won't have to wear a mask," Capak said.

Journalists were interested if they are at risk and whether they should be vaccinated. Capak said journalists are not in the group of people at risk, but they are priority workers such as airport workers and the like.

"There are many such occupations that will be a priority, and when the time comes, we will make them public. We have a request from the Croatian Journalists' Association to consider the risk and to put journalists among the priorities when the second vaccination phase is completed," said Capak.

About the British, Brazilian, and Croatian variant

Capak also spoke about the British coronavirus variant. So far, he says, we have 11 confirmed cases in Croatia.

"What is new is that the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) introduced a screening test for new variants. Yesterday, we tested 17 samples, of which we have ten suspicions of a new variant, and we sent all samples for confirmation to the Infectious Diseases Clinic. We will have confirmation whether they are British variants or not," said Capak.

He also talked about the Brazilian variant of coronavirus.

"The person tested for the mutation does not prove that it is a Brazilian variant, but it is one of the possible mutations and may belong to some other species. I would not call it the Brazilian variant. Maybe it will be called the Croatian variant because it has one mutation that other variants can have," Capak explained.

Still no easing of epidemiological measures

Davor Božinović commented on the possibility of COVID passports.

"This is a sensitive matter because, in Europe, it is considered that there should be no discrimination. And we will set ourselves up practically. We talked to the Ministry. On the one hand, it is still too early. Surely the talks will intensify to see how to do everything in our power to get tourism up and running to record a more successful tourist season than last. We achieved about 50 percent of the results from the record 2019, and by that, we are ahead of all our friends from Europe and beyond. You can be convinced that we are talking about it and that we will find the right path and, through bilateral contacts do everything to make our season as successful as possible," said Božinović.

Next week will be one year since the first case of coronavirus in Croatia. Alemka Markotić referred to the past year. She said that many patients are being monitored and that we will fight with the consequences of COVID-19 for many more years.

Božinović said that it is not yet possible to announce the easing of measures at the moment.

"For us, the decline in the infection cases lasts for more than two months, and we record a small but still growing growth today. I would not give an assessment at the moment. This may be due to cooling. We will see when it warms up how the numbers will move and what they will show in a week or two at the beginning of March," said Božinović.

They will continue to talk and make decisions.

Sources: Index, Jutarnji

To read morea bout coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 19 February, 2021 - Croatia has recorded 388 new coronavirus cases and eight related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Friday morning.

The number of active cases currently stands at 2,313. Among them are 798 infected people receiving hospital treatment, 73 of whom are on ventilators.

A total of 11,725 people are currently in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Croatia, 239,254 people have contracted the novel virus, of whom 5,407 have died and 231,534 have recovered, including 358 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 1,293,415 people have been tested to date, including 4,986 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, 18 February 2021 - Workers' Front MP Katarina Peović on Thursday called for introducing an accelerated retirement scheme for medical workers working with COVID-19 patients in respiratory support units.

"Those people work in difficult professional and medical conditions, are the most exposed to infection and are at risk of burnout," Peović told a news conference.

She said the situation could be compared with that of soldiers in the 1991-95 war whose years spent in war were recognised as double years of service.

"Work in respiratory support centres and in coveralls can qualify as particularly difficult, intensive and life-threatening work," Peović said, calling on the government once again to secure a legal basis for an accelerated retirement scheme for those workers.

She recalled that her party had submitted a motion to that effect in early January but the government rejected it "practically without any explanation."

ZAGREB, 18 February 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that Croatia would have 700,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of March, including those delivered to date and those to be delivered this month and in March.

"That means we will significantly increase the number of those vaccinated," he said at a cabinet meeting, adding that vaccination in Croatia was intensifying.

He said it was not good that some county public health institutes were giving information that confused people older than 65. "All three vaccines are effective in the sense that there are no ventilators, hospitalisations, deaths, whether it's the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine."

Plenkovic reiterated that was the position of the Health Ministry, the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency. "It's important that the messages about the vaccines are consistent so that we don't make our fellow citizens suspicious of certain vaccines."

He reiterated that Croatia would request information from the Russians about their Sputnik V vaccine for the sake of people's safety and to make sure "that what is administered is reliable, verified and effective."

Plenković said the current number of new infections was 10% of the number registered on 10 December and that with the current average of 75 weekly infections per million population, Croatia ranked third in the EU, after Finland and Denmark, in terms of the lowest weekly average.

He said that if the situation remained like that, the government would further ease restrictions as of 1 March, "with or without encouragement" from county civil protection authorities.

Beroš: 210,870 doses have arrived in Croatia to date

To date 210,870 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Croatia and 142,222 have been administered to 87,169 people, Health Minister Vili Beroš said at the cabinet meeting.

One shot has been given to 32,116 people and two shots to 55,053.

Beroš said the first stage of vaccination was nearing completion in most counties and that 20,895 doses had been given to older people and patients with chronic conditions as part of the second stage.

There have been 832 reports of suspected side effects, mainly mild and passing reactions.

Beroš announced that a system for the registration of people interested in being vaccinated would be operational as of 22 February. He said people would be able to register either with their family doctors, online or via a call centre.

The number of new infections is falling on the weekly level, the number of hospitalisations is also falling, the number of discharged patients is higher than the number of incoming patients, and the number of active cases has dropped by 1% in one week, the minister said.

Consequently, Zagreb's KB Dubrava hospital plans to further reduce the number of COVID beds and to return the medical staff temporarily assigned there to their hospitals, he added.

He recalled that an expert commission had been formed for the treatment of patients with post-COVID consequences, saying that it would write a report with all the relevant information for family and hospital doctors.

US visa waiver

Plenković also commented on the fact that the U.S. confirmed that Croatia had met one of the key visa waiver requirements. "We believe the procedures should be completed by summer so that 30 years after (Croatia's) recognition, our citizens will resolve the visa issue."

ZAGREB, 18 February 2021 - A new shipment of COVID-19 protective equipment arrived in Croatia from China on Thursday.

The equipment arrived in the Rijeka port aboard the CMA CGM Corneille ship.

The government said today that the equipment, consisting of 487,200 protective coveralls and 1.175 million shoe covers, worth more than €1.137 million, arrived in 11 containers, weighing around 87 tonnes.

The commodities were bought from the Chinese MEHECO company through the Commodity Reserves Directorate and in cooperation with the Croatian Embassy in Beijing.

ZAGREB, 18 February 2021 -  In the last 24 hours, Croatia has performed 6,072 coronavirus tests and 365, that is 6%, have returned positive, while there have been 24 deaths linked to COVID-19, the national COVID-19 response team said on Thursday.

Currently, there are 2,291 active cases, and of them, 829 are being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals, including 74 on ventilators.

Since 25 February, when the first case of the disease was identified in Croatia, a total of 1,288,429 persons have been tested for the virus. Of them, 238,866 have tested positive and 5,399 have died as a consequence of that infectious disease.

 As many as 231,176 have recovered, including 269 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

 Currently, 11,475 people are self-isolating

ZAGREB, 18 February 2021 - Researchers in a laboratory of the Zagreb-based Ruđer Bošković Institute have identified the presence of a mutation of the Brazilian variant of SARS-CoV-2 among samples collected in Croatia in the last three months, the Institute reported on Thursday.

A team of researchers led by Oliver Vugrek has analysed 50 samples and one of those samples included the B.1.1.28 lineage of the novel coronavirus, according to the press release.

These 50 samples were taken by the private Medikol clinic in December 2020 during the testing of citizens.

The Brazilian strain was detected in a sample taken in Zagreb.

This research team has not found the British variant of the virus in those samples.

Vugrek explains that the mutation could appear in various variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

He said that the monitoring of the mutations of the virus could help experts to establish why the spread of the virus could intensify or slow down among a population in some periods of time.

ZAGREB, 17 February 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday the government had held initial talks with the Russians on the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.

If that vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), we want to be in the position to make up for the current lack of vaccines, he told the press when asked if Croatia, like Hungary, would introduce Sputnik V.

Lots of cacophony concerning the Russian vaccine in the media

Noting that there was lots of "cacophony" concerning the Russian vaccine in the media, Plenković said that in recent months the government had been working on ensuring sufficient COVID vaccines for the whole population, as was its responsibility.

He mentioned 1.9 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine, a million doses of Moderna's, 2.8 million of AstraZeneca's and 900,000 of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which he said had started the registration procedure given that all vaccines were verified by the EMA.

"Croatia is a member of the European Union. The procedure of protecting the health of our fellow citizens is additionally strengthened by the fact that all medicines and vaccines arriving on our market pass through the filters and controls of the European Medicines Agency, and the Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) participates in that."

He said Croatia was now in the position that, through no fault of its own, the distribution of the vaccines had slowed down at EU level. Therefore, he added, the government wants to see the options for the possible procurement of vaccines, like Sputnik V, that may be available.

Plenković said the foreign and health ministries would put questions and demands to the Russians, adding that Russia was in contact with the EMA at the level of a scientific committee and that HALMED would be involved.

"If it happens that Sputnik gets the EMA's approval at the same time, we want to be in the position to have reserved certain doses on time so that we can de facto fill the gaps that currently exist, although the announcements... for the end of February and March are good, about 600,000 vaccine doses, and much more in April and May."

Plenković said the government wanted to be responsible regarding people's health and safety. He elaborated that when a vaccine or medicine approved by the EMA was "available on the Croatian market, the manufacturer is responsible for its quality or possible side effects."

"But if medicines are without certificates, then the state is responsible, and we definitely don't want to be in the situation to have on the market something that hasn't been checked and isn't reliable."

ZAGREB, 17 February 2021 - The head of the epidemiological service at the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) Bernard Kaić said on Wednesday that new coronavirus cases kept falling however, only three EU countries conduct fewer COVID tested per capita than Croatia.

Currently a 14-day rate of new cases in Croatia is 119 per 100,000 population with the lowest rate in Istria (30) and the highest in Split-Dalmatia county (194), Kaić told a press conference by the national COVID response team.

Kaić: We rank in the middle for number of positive cases, low level of testing

He warned  that it was not correct to compare the epidemiological situation in various countries based only on one indicator because that also depends on the testing strategy hence it is important to know how many tests are conducted per capita and the share of positive cases among those tested.

"If we observe testing, Croatia is at a low level and only three countries conduct fewer tests per capita while the percentage of positive cases ranks Croatia about in the middle of the list with a rate of 7% of positive cases in the past week," underscored Kaić.

Professionals and media outlets are claiming that our situation is the best and they question why measures are not being relaxed. However, when observing the percentage of those tested, say in Germany, Austria and Slovenia, they have a better epidemiological picture, he said.

To data 808 cases of side effects from vaccines have been reported - 765 from Pfizer's vaccine, 30 from Moderna's and 13 from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that the decision to obtain Russia's Sputnik V vaccine before it is registered in the EU would be made by the Croatian Agency for Medicines and Medical Equipment (HALMED) based on data of its safety and effectiveness.

Beroš: HALMED can issue temporary approval for Sputnik V vaccine

Beroš said that the Sputnik V vaccine was not procured earlier because there was no information regarding its safety and effectiveness however, more information about the vaccine has become available.

"There were not enough elements that would indicate that the Russian vaccine was safe and effective. Now we know that it has been tested on 20,000 people and that is new data," said Beroš.

The best thing would be that any medicine that is administered in Croatia as a member of the EU is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) but that isn't possible now because that process would take some time. It is up to HALMED then to say whether we can obtain the Russian vaccine via some urgent import.

Beroš added that reports were being received regarding vaccinations to determine whether anyone had been vaccinated out of order.

The reports will be examined by an independent commission and any irregularities will be reported to the Medical Chamber to determine disciplinary measures. If there is any suspicion of any criminal wrongdoing the case will be referred to the relevant bodies, said Beroš.

Head of the national COVID response team Davor Božinović notes that today is the second day that new relaxed anti-epidemic rules are being applied and it needs to be seen if they will impact the daily epidemiological situation and coronavirus numbers which currently are falling mildly.

Božinović: Local response teams cannot decide on relaxing measures

"Today we have 13 percent fewer cases than a week ago. If that trend continues that will provide an opportunity for new measures," Božinović announced.

Commenting on a statement by the Istria County response team that it would relax measures as of 1 March, explaining later that it would send a request to the national team to do so, Božinović said that was the only way to do so because local response teams cannot decide to relax measures of their own accord.