ZAGREB, 13 January 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Wednesday that for the first time since 22 December, Croatia today registered the number of hospitalised COVID patients below 2,000, and the daily number of deaths linked to this infection below 30.

Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,135 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 26 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis response team said on Wednesday morning when 1,993 COVID patients were being treated in hospitals, including 193 on ventilators.

Beroš told a news conference that despite a fall in coronavirus numbers, citizens should be on alert.

"Our well-balanced (anti-epidemic) measures are producing results," he added.

Although the number of patients in Zagreb's Arena sports centre, repurposed into a makeshift centre for treatment of COVID patients with moderate to serious symptoms, had fallen to 12, the minister said that the this makeshift centre would not yet been closed.

"We will not rush with its closure," Beroš said adding that the authorities would remain braced for new surges, if necessary.

He admitted that no solution had not still be found for the storage of the infectious waste from the two COVID hospitals in Zagreb, and added that the authorities continued searching for the best possible solution.

Downward trend in coronavirus numbers

The head of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, informed the news conference of downward trend in coronavirus numbers.

In the first three days of this week, the new coronavorus infection cases fell by 30.6% compared to the corresponding period last week.

Croatia's 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population is 334.4 cases, with Dubrovnik Neretva County having the lowest rate (165.8) while Međimurje County had the highest rate of 536.7 cases per 100,000 over a 14-day period.

To date, more than 35,000 Croatians have been vaccinated

Since Croatia started rolling out COVID vaccinations, more than 35,000 people have been vaccinated, and of them 16,425 are healthcare staff, while 15,848 have been residents of nursing homes.

In addition, 3,373 members of emergency services in the quake-hit area of Sisak-Moslavina County received first jabs of COVID vaccination last night, Capak said.

He added that so far, the authorities had received 86 reports on side-effects of the vaccination, and each of them will be dealt with by the special task force.

Some reports will be rejected, and claims from some reports will be registered, according to Capak who noted that a majority of side-effects were mildly elevated body temperature, swelling or pain around the injection site, headache. We had some serious side effects that had occurred, he added.

January 13, 2021 - The Croatian Civil Protection Headquarters announced new border rules for Croatia for travelers coming from countries with the new Covid strains, specifically the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Jutarnji List reports that the National Civil Protection Headquarters made a new decision on crossing the Croatian border, which restricts non-mandatory arrivals to Croatia, especially from countries where the new strain of coronavirus is spreading, such as the United Kingdom and South Africa. The Croatian Institute of Public Health will adopt the list of these countries and special epidemiological measures will be applied to passengers from these countries, Chief of the Headquarters, Davor Bozinovic, said at a press conference, explaining that the decision is not related to citizenship but to the area the traveler is coming from.

"Passengers from these countries must show a negative 48-hour PCR test when entering Croatia and will be ordered to 14 days of isolation. At the moment, the United Kingdom and South Africa are on that list," Bozinovic said.

He added that their quarantine could be reduced to seven days if they take a PCR test in authorized institutions and if the test is negative.

Persons from third countries coming due to urgent personal reasons such as funerals or medical treatment will have their stay in Croatia limited to a maximum of 12 hours.

"Special rules have been introduced for persons coming to deliver aid for the quake-hit areas. They will be able to enter Croatia with prior consent from the Headquarters, in other words, without a test," Bozinovic added.

Beros: The measures are yielding results, but we must be careful

Minister of Health Vili Beros said that today, for the first time since November 22 last year, we have less than 2,000 hospitalized (1993), and the number of deaths below 30.

"We must continue to be careful. However, we can conclude that our balanced measures are yielding results and that this is the optimal winning formula in Croatia when it comes to fighting the epidemic," Beros. said.

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

ZAGREB, 13 January 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,135 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 26 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis response team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases in Croatia stands at 5,300. There are 1,993 COVID patients in hospitals, including 193 on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case, a total of 222,117 people have contracted the novel coronavirus, 4,472 of them have died, and 212,345 have recovered, 712  of whom in the past 24 hours.

There are 18,219 people in self-isolation.

To date, 1,095,705 people have been tested, including 7,713 over the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, 13 January 2021 - Mass vaccination of the general population is to start on Monday in Rijeka, or more precisely vaccination of those aged over 65 and chronic patients who have opted for that most effective protection, Jutarnji List daily said on Wednesday.

Head of the Teaching Institute of Public Health of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Vladimir Mićović, said that COVID vaccination centres throughout the city had already been prepared, as well as in county offices in Delnice, Opatija, Crikvenica and on Cres, Krk, Lošinj and Rab.

He said that family doctors have to provide lists of their patients who had applied for vaccination so that they could get an appointment and avoid crowds due to epidemiological measures. According to him, 400 to 500 could be vaccinated daily at each centre in Rijeka, and possibly more if enough doses of the vaccine arrive.

ZAGREB, 13 January 2021 - The first shipment of 3,600 doses of the COVID vaccine developed by Moderna arrived in Croatia on Tuesday, and the authorities will start rolling out them to the quake-affected Sisak-Moslavina County on Wednesday

The government's spokesman Marko Milić wrote on the Twitter account on Tuesday evening that the vaccination in the county would begin on Wednesday and in Petrinja patients suffering from chronic diseases, senior citizens, firefighters and emergency services would be the first to get vaccinated.

After that, Moderna vaccines will be administered to patients and staff in the psychiatric hospital in Popovaca.

Illustration by Little Shiva

January 13, 2021 - Good news: Croatia records the largest decline of new COVID-19 cases in the EU.

Index.hr reports that after introducing strict epidemiological measures, Croatia records the largest decline in the number of new infections in the European Union.

As the Our World in Data page chart shows, with about 900 new infections per million inhabitants on December 13, when it was one of the worst in the EU, by January 11, Croatia had reached about 240 cases.

It is essential that the number of hospitalized and dead is dropping, too. Of the 20 deaths from COVID-19 per million inhabitants per day on December 21, that number dropped by January 11 to about 10.

A similar decline is recorded in neighboring Serbia, but the number of newly infected people is currently not as favorable as in Croatia. It records about 320 new infections per million inhabitants. On the other hand, with 5 deaths per million inhabitants, Serbia is better than Croatia according to that statistic. Therefore, it is not clear whether the smaller number of newly infected in Croatia is partly due to a smaller scope of testing.

The steep decline in Croatia followed the closure of cafes, restaurants, and gyms and the restriction of gatherings on November 28, 2020. It was probably also helped by moving to online classes, which was introduced on December 14, and in many schools even before that.

This is in line with research published in the world-renowned journals Scientific Reports Nature and Science.

Namely, a study published in the journal Science on December 15, conducted in 34 European and seven non-European countries, showed that closing schools and universities, limiting gatherings to 10 people or less, and closing most non-essential businesses where close contacts are made, especially nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, have the greatest impact on combating the epidemic.

Similarly, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports Nature was conducted on a sample of 79 territories, which included countries and different states in the United States. According to the study, which analyzed the effects of a wider range of measures, the most effective were curfew, lockdown, closure or restriction of places where people gather (shops, restaurants, etc.), closure of educational institutions (both schools and universities) and the introduction of border restrictions.

This decline is a reason for optimism, but it should be noted that some countries have fared much better than Croatia. For example, Iceland went through a mild two waves that it brought under control relatively quickly while Finland barely felt a pandemic, both in the first and second waves.

The reason for caution is that there is a new strain of the virus that is spreading significantly faster than usual in several European countries.

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

January the 13th, 2021 - Could Croatia manage to vaccinate one million Croatian residents before the end of March? According to Health Minister Vili Beros, it's not only possible but deeply desired.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Health Minister Vili Beros said there was going to be no easing of any anti-epidemic measures as yet, adding that the epidemiological situation across Croatia was now better and that the pressure on the healthcare system, which has been terrible of late, was finally diminishing.

"I want to believe that this is the result of the responsibility of people, but it also showcases the full meaning of what our measures are. We must not do anything that would jeopardise these positive trends, especially if we look at the events going on in Croatia's surrounding countries, the so-called the third wave. This is the possible consequence of socialising more indoors during the festive period, and also with regard to the specific situation in Croatia, which are the tragic events in Sisak-Moslavina County. Circumstances there can contribute to the spread of the epidemic, so we must be careful,'' Minister Vili Beros warned to Dnevnik HTV.

Interest in the vaccine

When asked how satisfied he was with how vaccination is going in Croatia, he said that the government had done everything possible to provide the vaccine.

"There's a lot of interest in it, and more vaccines are needed. People have put their faith in science, in the profession, in medicine. We need to reach a vaccination rate of more than 70 percent, and I believe we'll achieve that. There are 17,550 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arriving per week, there'll be 264,000 doses by the end of March. Moderna's vaccine is coming today, and there'll be a total of 52,000 doses of that by the end of February, the good news is that AstraZeneca has made progress too and the EMA will approve the vaccine on January the 29th. It's realistically possible that we'll be able to vaccinate a million people in Croatia by the end of March,'' said Minister Vili Beros.

Minister Vili Beros said private healthcare workers will be vaccinated in late January and in early February. The priority in vaccination, he reiterated, are those most vulnerable people living in homes for the elderly, employees of the social welfare system and healthcare workers. In the second phase, those over 65 with chronic illness or underlying diseases will be vaccinated, and those younger than 65 will be vaccinated at the end of February and at the beginning of March, depending on the dynamics of vaccine delivery.

The conditions in the earthquake-stricken Sisak hospital...

He commented on the situation in the Sisak hospital, saying that when it comes to statics, technical elements, the profession must have its say first.

"Engineers are evaluating the situation in the Sisak hospital. The surgical building is safe, according to the profession, unlike other buildings,'' he said.

The coronavirus crisis has cost a lot, he pointed out and stated that more than 1.132 billion kuna was spent on testing, treatment and sick leave, 82 million kuna on special drugs, 420 million kuna on vaccines, equaling a total of 1.634 billion kuna.

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ZAGREB, 11 January, 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Monday he was happy with the turnout of Croatians to get COVID-19 vaccines, and that additional amounts of Pfizer vaccine jabs were pre-ordered earlier in the day in agreement with the European Commission.

"At this moment I can be satisfied with the inoculation. Interest is high, I can say that (COVID) vaccines are in-demand. This shows that citizens have recognised the importance of the vaccination and that they have placed their trust in science, experts and medicine," the minister told the national broadcaster HTV on Monday evening.

He reassured the public that the government had done its utmost to ensure COVID jabs for the population.

He said that after today's agreement with the European Commission, Zagreb can count on an additional amount of 700,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Beroš said that until the end of March, Croatia will likely have been provided with 264,000 Pfizer vaccine jabs.

On Tuesday, the first batch of vaccines developed by Moderna are expected in Croatia, and 52,000 doses of this vaccine are likely to be procured by Croatia until the end of February.

Provided that AstraZeneca vaccine gets approved on 29 January, Croatia can count on the procurement of 1.7 million dozes of that vaccination.

In this case, the minister expects a million citizens to be vaccinated until the end of March. 

Commenting on lower new infection and hospitalisation numbers, Beros told the national broadcaster (HTV) that there was still no room for relaxing anti-epidemic rules considering the third wave of the pandemic in other countries as well as considering the specific situation in the quake-hit Sisak-Moslavina County.

For more information and the latest news about coronavirus in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - Montenegrin health authorities on Monday decided to allow entry into the country for foreign nationals without a negative test for COVID-19 thus partly relaxing current epidemiological measures even though around 1.5% of the country's population is infected with coronavirus. 

Health Minister Jakov Milatović said the decision was due to the fact that restricting entry into the country during the summer had caused Montenegro to lose close to half a billion euros even though "a negligible number of tourists were responsible for the transmission of coronavirus within Montenegro."

Health authorities have also lifted the ban on travel between municipalities on weekends while restaurants and bars will continue, as they have so far, to work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. without live music.

The health authorities have said that the epidemic curve is stable even though there were significant epidemiological risks during the holidays.

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January the 12th, 2021 - Croatian Epidemiologist Branko Kolaric has discussed the vaccination process for healthcare professionals, the elderly and the most vulnerable, and some of the rules other countries might consider bringing in for those who do not vaccinate against the novel coronavirus.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Institute of Public Health says that by the end of January and through February, a good part of the elderly, vulnerable and patients with chronic health complaints and other diseases who are in the second group are expected to be vaccinated. This will then be immediately followed by the third phase, so everyone else should be there by the time spring rolls around.

A member of the Government's Scientific Council, epidemiologist Branko Kolaric, said more about this in Dnevnik Nova TV.

As he said, Croatia is currently vaccinating people with a small number of doses. "At this rate, we should be able to vaccinate about fifty percent of the population in two years. Now the limiting factor is the number of doses we have available. We hope to register some more vaccines soon and when we get more doses, then we’ll be able to speed up the pace of vaccination. Now we’re still under one percent of people in Croatia vaccinated, but it is still at the level of the European Union,’’ said Branko Kolaric.

Regarding KOHOM's proposal to vaccinate people in large areas, he says that this is one of the possibilities when there are enough vaccines available in the country.

“Once we have a large number of doses available, this is one of the possibilities so that we can get people vaccinated faster. That will only be when we will have hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine at our disposal,’’ Branko Kolaric explained.

Germany is now going into a stricter lockdown, and Branko Kolaric hopes that this will not happen to Croatia. "We’re on the descent of the second wave. All countries are now preparing for the third wave, which is associated with the festive period and more indoor socialising. We’ll have to see how it develops in our country. At the moment, the situation is favourable, epidemiologically speaking - we’re seeing the effects of the measures we’ve introduced,’’ said Branko Kolaric.

There have been several cases of coronavirus infection occurring even after vaccination against the disease, but Branko Kolaric explained that such people didn’t contract the disease from the vaccine.

“I’d like to just mention that when someone gets vaccinated and still gets the disease, they didn’t get the disease from the vaccine. That’s impossible, but it does mean that the person was incubating the novel coronavirus at the time of their vaccination. The vaccine teaches our body how to fight the virus and that takes some time, the first effects should take about ten days to two weeks. It’s therefore still possible to contract the virus during that first week. People who received the first dose and became ill, receive the second dose on a schedule if their isolation is over. If not, then they get it after the end of their isolation,’’ explained Branko Kolaric.

“We’re now thinking about how we can get our hands on enough doses of the vaccine. We have a great interest, people who would readily get vaccinated are calling us,’’ he added.

Restrictions for those who are not vaccinated...

But the question arises - will there be restrictions for those who don’t get vaccinated? 

“Will there be any restrictions? In my opinion, yes, I think that’s possible. Some countries and companies will introduce that. Travel companies, airlines and the like said they would ask for their passengers to be vaccinated,’’ Branko Kolaric said.

When it comes to the anti-epidemic measures, he says it is difficult to say how long they’ll need to stay in place. "We’re monitoring the number of cases and the share of positives on a daily basis. This is going to remain as it is until January the 31st and after that we’ll see what the situation will be like,’’ he said, adding that he is optimistic about Croatia’s tourist season this year despite all.

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