ZAGREB, 20 January 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 902 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 27 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases in Croatia stands at 3,481. There are 1,603 COVID patients in hospitals, 151 of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of the infection, 226,550 people have contracted the novel virus, and 4,711 of them have died, while 218,358 have recovered, including 478 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 15,622 people are in self-isolation.

To date, 1,134,221 people have been tested, including 7,068 in the last 24 hours.

January the 20th, 2021 - Krunoslav Capak, the director of the Croatian Institute for Public Health, has stated that masks will need to continue being worn even after the second dose of the new coronavirus vaccine, which is now being administered in Croatia, is taken.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, there continue to be very many questions circulating around now that people in Croatia have begun receiving the second dose of the new coronavirus vaccine.

Everyone who has received the first dose to date will receive the second dose in the next three weeks. Krunoslav Capak told RTL that Croatia's residents will continue to have to wear masks even after receiving their second dose of the vaccine.

“Science doesn't yet know the answer to the question of whether a person who is immune can continue to be a short-term carrier of this virus and transmit that virus to someone else. We can't be sure of that and that's why we recommend everyone, regardless of whether they've been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, to adhere to all of the epidemiological measures,'' said Krunoslav Capak.

"However, when our numbers drop significantly due to the fact that we have been vaccinated, then we'll be able to slightly relax all of these measures," he added.

All vaccinated persons receive a certificate...

For now, there is no discussion at European Union level, Krunoslav Capak explained, of whether it will be easier to cross borders for people who have been vaccinated against the novel virus. Some countries have introduced things so that people who have a certificate that they have recovered in the last three months can cross the border without needing to go into mandatory self-isolation and without presenting any sort of test. However, that is currently a small number of countries.

The position in the European Union on this is that this is a discriminatory measure, and that it should be further considered.

"We think that we'll be able to vaccinate most of the Croatian population by the summer months and that this will bring us certain economic benefits, especially when it comes to tourism," Krunoslav Capak said. At some point, nursing homes will surely open to visitors, he also assureed.

"Despite all that, we still don't know what the epidemiological situation will be and that's why this measure isn't being relaxed yet, but at some point, that will definitely come next,'' said Capak.

The relaxing of Croatia's anti-epidemic measures...

''There can realistically be a million Croatian residents vaccinated by the end of March if we get enough vaccines in order to carry that out,'' Capak claims.

''At the moment. we can’t know if we 'll actually have that many doses by the time spring rolls around. Everything is being very carefully considered, including the easing of our measures. Before the 31st of January, which is the time period for which these current measures are in force, we'll carefully consider whether it is time to relax the measures due to the specific situation caused by the Petrinja earthquake, due to the appearance of new strains and so on,'' said the director of the CNIPH.

Activities such as outdoor activities and sport are less risky, so this will be taken into account when thoughts about relaxing measures comes to the forefront, he added.

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January the 20th, 2021 - Just how long might we expect Croatian anti-epidemic measures to remain in place for? Although the general epidemiological picture across the country has dramatically improved in recent weeks and pressure on the economy continues, many in the profession are claiming that it is still too soon to be considering relaxing any current measures.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, if the epidemiological situation in Croatia continues to be favourable as it is now we can expect the measures to be eased, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced recently, but he didn't say explicitly when we might be able to realistically expect that, nor did he state which measures would be the first to be scrapped.

However, as Jutarnji list has since learned unofficially, despite the reassuring statement of the Prime Minister, it appears that there will be no easing of the current Croatian anti-epidemic measures and it is almost certain that the vast majority of the existing measures will be extended even after the 31st January, the date on which they are due to be reviewed yet again.

Croatian epidemiologists and the National Civil Protection Headquarters, Jutarnji list unofficially found out, aren't inclined to make any concessions when it comes to the measures because they believe that we must welcome the arrival of warmer weather with low numbers, and the fear of more contagious strains remains too great.

We are told that Ireland has suddenly gone from being the country with the most favourable situation to a country experiencing tremendous trouble as a result of the spread of the novel coronavirus. While it is constantly being pushed that children attending classes online should be back in their classrooms soon, that doesn’t seem to be a viable option either. Namely, although children tolerate the virus well and very rarely become truly unwell, the latest research shows that they are the ones spreading the infection very successfully, so Jutarnji list's claim that the powers that be are inclined to keep Croatian schools closed until further notice.

Even if there are some concessions, they will merely be symbolic, and according to the aforementioned sources Jutarnji list managed to speak to, it is still most likely that Croatia will choose keep its very strict measures until Easter rolls around.

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ZAGREB, 19 January, 2021 - The Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) has so far received 139 reports of suspected side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, it said on its website.

The agency has so far studied 116 of the reports, finding 20 percent of them to be serious and 80 percent non-serious.

The most frequent side effects reported included local reactions, such as pain and swelling at the injection site, a headache, an elevated body temperature, feeling weak and tired, shaking chills and nausea.

These are expected side effects and are similar to side effects of other vaccines. They are slight to moderate in intensity and they wear off spontaneously over a period of several days or after the use of symptomatic therapy such as cold compresses, fever-reducing medications and painkillers, HALMED said.

The agency said it had not received any reports of suspected side effects with a fatal outcome.

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January 19, 2021 – 45 people tried to enter Croatia with fake PCR tests this weekend alone. They were caught by Croatian police, detained at the border and reported to the State's Attorney office. If found guilty, each faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison

Some 45 people tried to enter Croatia through the borders of one county with fake PCR tests this past weekend.

Travel from Bosnia and Herzegovina into Croatia currently requires the production of a negative PCR test or a doctor's certificate proving you have successfully passed through a COVID-19 infection in recent months.

Since the ban on entering Croatia from Bosnia and Herzegovina without a negative PCR test was introduced, fake PCR tests are increasingly being forged. Border police and customs officers at crossings in Brod-Posavina County have met many people trying to cross the border with fake PCR tests. But, this weekend a new record number of forged tests were found on the county's border crossings.

According to a statement from the Brod-Posavina Police Department, as many as 45 attempts to enter the country with fake PCR tests were discovered on Saturday and Sunday.

"At the Stara Gradiška border crossing, police officers determined that 43 persons, mostly citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented fake PCR tests issued in BiH at the border control. At the Slavonski Brod border crossing, two people were registered who gave forged tests," the Brod-Posavina police reported.

Police officers file criminal charges against all those suspected of committing the criminal offence of forgery of a document with the Municipal State Attorney's Office in Slavonski Brod. If found guilty, such persons face up to three years in prison.

The overall number of people detained on Croatia's border with fake PCR tests this weekend could actually be higher - the figures of 45 persons detained with fake PCR tests were released by the police of just one county in Croatia - Brod-Posavina County. A further eight Croatian counties exist along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each has border crossings between the two countries.

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that there was an encouraging downward epidemic curve trend and that if it continued, it would give reason to hope that possible relaxation of anti-epidemic measures could be considered in consultation with experts.

"It is good that the weekly average of confirmed infections has dropped to the level of mid-October," Plenković said at a government session.

Croatia currently has the third biggest 14-day drop in new infections in the EU. The number of fatalities has been on the decline as well, the number of people on ventilators and hospitalisations has been halved compared to the peak a month ago and is now at the level of two months ago, in the first half of November. The number of hospitalisations has dropped twice compared to a month ago, he said.

"These are good indicators and mean that the measures introduced at the end of November and responsible behaviour by citizens have reversed trends. We should now keep them up. The responsibility of all is very important," the PM said.

He stressed that the change in statistics had been achieved without a curfew or a strict lockdown and that if the current trend continued, a possible easing of restrictions would be considered in consultation with experts.

The PM said one of the first signals was the start of the second school term and the return to school of primary school pupils from Grades 1 to 4 and final-year secondary school students.

The others will have to wait but I hope they, too, will return to school if the current situation continues, he said.

So far, 46,000 people have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Today a new shipment of the Pfizer vaccine arrived and a decision by the European Medicines Agency is being awaited on the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which would increase the number of doses, Plenković said.

"This would make it possible for us to vaccinate the groups that are most at risk as well as those most exposed to infection and thus protect them before the start of the tourist season," he said.

He noted that this week a parliamentary debate would be held on the government-sponsored amendments to the Act on the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction and that today the government would adopt a number of decisions designed to facilitate life for people in the quake-hit areas.

In that context, he singled out a conclusion on the write-off of utility bills for households. "The conclusion refers to electricity and gas," said Plenković.

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - The head of the national COVID-19 crisis management  team, Davor Božinović, said on Monday that the despite the fact that the current epidemiological situation was good, they did not want to risk a third wave occurring and that the impact of each measure on the decrease of infections would be assessed.

He stressed he could not specify whether the current measures would be relaxed after 31 January, but until then each existing measure would be evaluated.

Commenting on claims about the introduction of vaccination certificates which could enable citizens to travel, Božinović said there were no formal discussions on them.

"We are currently not considering those options," he said, adding that some countries are thinking about it.

"If there is a joint approach at the EU level, we are going to actively join those talks. At the moment, the quantities of vaccine in the EU and Croatia, and more or less in the entire world, are too small for such decisions to be made. At this moment I think it is too soon," Božinović said.

Capak: 29% fewer new infections compared to previous week

The head of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, said that from 12 to 18 January there had been 29% fewer new infections than in the preceding week, from 5 to 11 January.

The 14-day incidence of 288.9 new cases places Croatia in the 7th place of countries with lowest incidence in the European Union. However, the mortality rate remains high, with Croatia ranking 8th among the EU countries with the highest mortality rate.

Capak said that a new tranche of 17,550 doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been delivered to Croatia today. Part of it will be used to administer the second shot to people who have been vaccinated.

He said that 122 suspected side effects had been reported to date, most of which had been mild side effects but there had also been several more severe allergic reactions.

Capak announced that the next tranche of Moderna's vaccine would be delivered on 25 January - 4,800 doses. He did not agree with reporters' claims that the delivery in the EU was slower than in countries who had negotiated with manufacturers by themselves.

"I hope we will receive sufficient quantities of the vaccine to vaccinate all those interested in our population, which is most important," Capak said.

Capak confirmed claims that Pfizer was reducing the delivery of vaccine doses but that the reason for that was the reconstruction of the vaccine production plant, the goal of which was to increase production and reach the agreed vaccine quotas.

As for Croatia, there is no official confirmation that the delivery of the vaccine will be reduced, he said, adding that as of 15 February the deliveries will be significantly increased.

Markotić: We must remain prudent to avoid third wave of epidemic

The head of the Zagreb Dr Fran Mihaljević Infectious Diseases Hospital, Alemka Markotić, said that the lower number of new infections was reducing the pressure on the hospital system, and that the number of discharged patients had been exceeding the number of admitted patients in recent days.

She underscored that despite that one must not ignore the situation in Europe.

"Some countries are registering a spike that occurred in a short period of time, probably due to the mutated version of the virus," Markotić said, adding that one must be careful to avoid a third wave of the epidemic.

She said that a decision to close the Arena sports hall in Zagreb as a tertiary centre for coronavirus patients had not been made yet, although it was being considered.

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - Croatia has registered 174 new coronavirus cases after 2,369 tests conducted in the last 24 hours and 39 people have died from coronavirus-related complications, the national coronavirus response team said on Monday.

Currently, there are 3,276 active cases in the country, of whom 1,742 people are receiving hospital treatment and 139 of them are on ventilators. A total of 16,687 people are in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 225,128 people have been infected with the novel virus, of whom 4,655 have died and 217,197 have recovered, including 917 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 1,120,894 people have been tested.

January the 18th, 2021 - The Dubrovnik City Walls were typically thronged with people during the hot summer months in good old pre-pandemic times. These imposing Medieval walls, some of the best preserved of their kind in the whole world, are among the southernmost Croatian city's top attractions for tourists, from Game of Thrones fans to history and architecture buffs and everyone in between. As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, however, there are more city employees walking them than there are visitors.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as stated, previous years, the mighty Dubrovnik City Walls broke record after record in terms of attendance, and the (often-complained-about) price of 200 kuna was formed in order to try to reduce crowds on the ancient walls which need special care in terms of their structure. There used to be up to 10,000 visitors a day walking them, taking panoramic photos of the stunning views of the Old Town and the Adriatic sea, but throughout the whole of 2020, there were not even 150,000 guests recorded.

Tremendous financial losses have also seen some reconstruction projects stopped in their tracks, according to a report from HRT.

''As for domestic tourists... if they send us an e-mail can get a ticket to walk the Dubrovnik City Walls for fifty kuna. This did stimulate people to go come and walk the walls, and the residents of Dubrovnik and the wider Dubrovnik-Neretva County have free admission,'' says Renata Andjus, president of the Society of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities.

However, in spite of that, there are days when there are more city employees present on the walls than there are foreign or indeed local visitors. If we compare and recall, back in pre-pandemic 2019, the walls were visited by a mind-boggling 1,250,000 visitors. In the tumultuous year of 2020, a mere 10 percent of that turnover was realised.

Again due to unprecedented financial losses, the Society of Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities had to take out a loan. Their priority is to provide salaries for about seventy employees. At the same time, they reorganised their monument heritage restoration projects.

''It was done in a way that we simply stopped many projects because it became impossible. We've finished or are finishing the projects that were almost done anyway - Ston and Pridvorje,'' says Renata Andjus. Thanks to a donation of two million euros by Ivo Felner, the renovation of the Rector's Palace on the nearby Elaphite island of Lopud, which lies just northwest of Dubrovnik, is now nearing completion. Still, everyone is hoping for a better 2021.

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January the 18th, 2021 - The amount of Croatian companies actively seeking government aid in the form of numerous economic packages designed to retain jobs has doubled in the last two months alone. Despite a much better epidemiological picture in Croatia, with new cases of infection dropping dramatically, many Croatian companies are still struggling to stay afloat in what are very lean times indeed.

The winter months are usually more difficult for many, especially those who own businesses operating within the tourism sector, Croatia's strongest economic branch which simply cannot afford to be broken. However, with the coronavirus pandemic still raging, despite the advent of the vaccine, Croatian companies still need the government to step up.

As Marina Klepo/Novac writes, as government ministers continue to come up with and pass new economic measures to try to preserve jobs, extend those measures, expand coverage and devise new rules for applying for them, many Croatian employers continue to complain that their payouts are arriving late.

Those who are particularly dissatisfied are those operating in the heavily-hit hospitality and catering industry, who aren't currently allowed to even work, yet their bills keep on arriving. They have been pointing out that they haven't yet received their government grants for the month of November 2020.

Claims for the reimbursement of fixed operating costs are still being submitted, and the state should then reimburse those who apply successfully for that measure within 60 days. The Croatian Government institutions, on the other hand, claim that all grants for October have now been paid out, that possible arrears for November will be paid by the end of this week. They also claim that grants for December will be paid in January.

According to the Croatian Employment Service (CES), the number of Croatian companies seeking support back in October and November increased significantly compared to what the situation looked like during the summer months, in fact, it has more than doubled.

However, the real jump will only be shown by the data for December 2020 and January 2021. Back in October last year, 25,670 Croatian companies sought state support, about ten thousand more than in September, in November that number reached almost 32 thousand, and a total of 120,273 people were employed. A record number of Croatian companies in need of state assistance was seen way back in April, with as many as 100,864 seeking it, with a total of 594,444 employees.

By the end of November, a massive 7.6 billion kuna had been paid out to Croatian companies in the form of government grants. While the negative impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit business owners working in tourism and hospitality the hardest, the latest Fina analysis shows that there are also sectors that are actually coping well with this crisis.

With a minimal risk of "default status", 1251 Croatian companies continue to successfully operate, with 1085 of them not applying for government assistance measures even once.

The assessment of their credit rating is calculated on the basis of submitted annual financial reports, data on the state of any blockages placed on them by the state and the status of bankruptcy, pre-bankruptcy and liquidation.

In the group of the most stable Croatian companies, most of them, more precisely 263 of them, are those who operate in the manufacturing industry, a sector that has been exposed to great market pressures for years now. This sector is followed by trade with 259 Croatian companies, enterprises working in professional, scientific and technical activities (133), then construction (87), water supply and wastewater disposal (63), and transport and storage (58).

When it comes to the size of a company, the analysis shows that the group of the most stable enterprises includes 715 medium-sized Croatian companies, 183 large ones, 181 micro-enterprises and six who are technically defined as small.

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