December the 27th, 2020 - The much talked about Pfizer vaccine has arrived in the Republic of Croatia, and vaccination against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is finally set to begin today after the year from hell.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works for absolutely everything imaginable this year. This unprecedented public health crisis, the likes of which not seen since the tragic Spanish Flu pandemic over 100 years ago, took the entire world by storm and showed us just how much we remain at the mercy of nature, regardless of our advancements and achievements as a species. Man's arrogant belief that it is above everything else has once again been embarrassingly unravelled, and by something that we can't even see. 

The Pfizer vaccine has finally found its way to Croatia, marking a much desired light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel for many. Krunoslav Capak, the director of the Croatian Institute for Public Health, who has become somewhat of a household name since the new virus penetrated Croatia's first line of defence, spoke about the Pfizer vaccine's arrival.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak said the country received the first 9,750 doses of the new coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech on Boxing Day at 06:00. The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at a temperature of -70 degrees and as of December the 27th, distribution among Croatian counties will begin.

Vaccination starts in Croatia today, and the first to be vaccinated will be those at the Tresnjevka Home for the Elderly in Zagreb. According to Krunoslav Capak, this is the most important event since the beginning of the pandemic.

"For now, this is a symbolic amount of vaccine that is being delivered to all EU member states, which marks the start of the European Vaccination Days on December the 27th, 28th and 29th, 2020. After that, new doses will arrive every week, which we expect in accordance with the vaccination plan. We'd like to invite all citizens to respond the start of vaccination in accordance with our slogan Think of others - get vaccinated,'' said the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, doc. Krunoslav Capak, and as was stated in the press release of the CNIPH.

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.

December 23, 2020 - The Croatian Government has announced that COVID-19 vaccinations in Croatia will begin on Sunday.

As Index.hr reports, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today at the press conference in the National and University Library that the vaccination will begin on Sunday, December 27, 2020.

"Safety is based on controlled clinical trials. Vaccinations will start on December 27, and it will take place over the next few months. We want as many of our fellow citizens to be vaccinated, and preferably everyone. That is why we have a clear debate that as many people as possible decide to get vaccinated. We aim for 70 percent of our fellow citizens to be vaccinated," Plenković said, reports Večernji list.

People in nursing homes will first get vaccinated

The vaccination will be free and voluntary. The first to be vaccinated will be those at risk because of their age or illness and their type of work.

"The priority groups are health professionals who are in contact with COVID-19 patients and users of social care homes. In the second phase, the elderly and those with chronic diseases will be vaccinated. The vaccine is coming on Saturday, it will be distributed to counties on Sunday, and mostly those in nursing homes will be vaccinated," said Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

Only the documentation content has changed, so now pregnant women and those who are planning to become pregnant can be vaccinated. There is no evidence that the vaccine acts on the fetus and pregnancy.

"We entered the negotiations on vaccine procurement with a timely response from the Government. We are a small market for large companies, and we often have problems with regular supply. We have secured maximum quantities of vaccines. When everyone gets the vaccine, we will get it too. That will happen on Saturday," Capak said.

Campaign 'Think of others, get vaccinated'

The Croatian Government has so far ordered 5,905,000 doses of the vaccine, of which one million from Pfizer, over two million from AstraZeneca, one million from Moderna, 900,000 from Johnson&Johnson, and 300,000 from CureVac.

Prime Minister Plenković said the vaccination plan's success depends on how many people will want to be vaccinated. He called on all media outlets to join the campaign under the slogan, "Think of others, get vaccinated."

"The Croatian Institute of Public Health has launched a campaign to promote vaccination. This is a key message. The arrival of the vaccine is an encouraging message, a message that gives hope for the normalization of life, social, and economic activities," Plenković explained. "This is an unprecedented crisis that has changed the world," he added.

Plenković said there is a loud but small group of people who oppose vaccination, but that there are many more people who want to be vaccinated than the vaccines that will come in the first tranche. Capak added that there would be enough vaccines for everyone.

"The arrival of the vaccine is a hope for the future. This is the moment when we come to the situation that by the end of March, we have about 270,000 doses of vaccine," Plenković said.

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

ZAGREB, Dec 23, 2020 - Croatia has registered 2,763 new cases of coronavirus infection after more than 10,000 tests, as well as 66 related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Wednesday morning.

The number of active cases currently stands at 15,957, and there are 2,843 COVID patients in hospitals, 291 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the first case of the infection was confirmed in Croatia, 200,086 people have contracted the disease, of whom 3,394 have died and 180,735 have recovered, including 1,855 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 47,482 people in self-isolation.

To date, 974,507 people have been tested for the novel virus, 10,194 of them over the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 22, 2020 - The head of the Split-Dalmatia County Institute of Public Health, Zeljka Karin, said on Tuesday that out of the first delivery of 8,000 COVID vaccines, which should be dispatched to Croatia on Saturday, 800 doses would be immediately distributed to Split where the vaccination could start on Sunday.

In the next ten to 15 days, additional deliveries of the COVID vaccine are expected to arrive.

According to Karin, the recommendation is that in Split, the first jabs should be administered to hospital staff who are in direct contact with COVID patients, as well as to personnel in the emergency wards. Patients with chronic diseases are also among the first to be vaccinated against COVID.

"After that, senior citizens in retirement homes will be vaccinated," Karin said at a ceremony at which a €16,300 hospital freezer for storage of vaccine doses was donated.

The 560-litre freezer, made in Japan, was provided by the Optika Anda company.

ZAGREB, Dec 22, 2020 - Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Tuesday that 55,000 applications had been received for intra-county travel passes, adding that 60% had been processed, of which 60% had been denied.

"About 40% of the applications are justified and passes have been issued," he told the press.

Bozinovic said a whole spectrum of questions was defined by the decision on travel passes and that many applications were being assessed by county civil protection authorities or the Civil Protection Directorate.

The eventual decision depends on whether the reason stated for requesting a pass to leave a county is considered necessary or unpostponable, he added.

Bozinovic would not say if the terms for obtaining a pass were more strict than those in force during the spring lockdown. He reiterated that the intention was to reduce contacts as much as possible.

He said people were more disciplined in recent weeks and that this was the most important thing for any COVID-19 measure to be successful.

He believes the measures so far have yielded results. "Everything has certainly yielding results. However, it all boils down to whether people will accept the measures. When they are widely accepted, they have a chance to be successful."

Bozinovic believes the restriction on movement between counties, in force until January 8, will achieve its goal. "Without it, there would have been much more movement these days that there will be."

"Let's try to refrain ourselves. The numbers we have now indicate a declining trend and it wouldn't be good if we had the numbers rising again and the pressure on the healthcare system rising again," he said.

A combination of responsible and disciplined behaviour as well as refraining from risky and evitable contacts, together with vaccination, should lead to a better epidemiological situation, he added.

The government will present a vaccination plan tomorrow. Bozinovic said everything was ready for the delivery of the first vccine batch on Saturday.

ZAGREB, Dec 22, 2020 - In the past 24 hours 1,595 new cases of coronavirus have been registered in Croatia after more than 9,000 tests have been conducted, while 71 people have died as a consequence of COVID-19, the national COVID response team said on Tuesday.

There are currently 2,895 patients in hospital treatment and 294 of them are on ventilators.

Since the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, a total of 197,323 cases have been registered and 3,328 people have died.

A total of 178,880 people have recovered from the disease, with 2,514 recovering in past 24 hours.

There are currently 15,115 active cases in the country and 48,166 people are in self-isolation.

A total of 964,313 persons have been tested since the outbreak of the disease in March, including 9,088 in the past 24 hours.

ZAGREB, Dec 22, 2020 - The first samples of coronavirus-positive patients from Varazdin have arrived at Zagreb's Dr. Fran Mihaljevic Hospital for Infections Diseases to establish if they are a new strain of the virus, Jutarnji List daily said on Tuesday, adding that samples from Zagreb would be analysed as well.

The hospital's director, Alemka Markovic, confirmed that an interdisciplinary team involving a number of institutions was starting to sequence a larger number of samples from northern Croatia, including Zagreb, to determine possible mutations in relation to the coronavirus from the first wave.

"When we see how strongly the line ascended in the Varazdin area, strongly above (the rest of) Croatia, no one who knows about viruses can help but feel that it can't be related only to non-compliance with the measures, because similar situations, at least according to what was known, occurred in other parts of Croatia, yet there the numbers didn't rise so much," she was quoted as saying.

Asked by the paper on what grounds was it assumed that a mutated strain had entered the Varazdin area, what differentiated the patients there from those elsewhere in the country, and since when was the mutated virus suspected to have been in that area, Markotic said one should be cautious and that "the sudden rise in the number of patients in a short time doesn't necessarily mean that it was the variant imported from the UK."

Prefect Radimir Cacic said Varazdin County "has totally crushed the virus. Whether it's the new strain or the old one, whichever it is, it's been crushed. For the new strain the measures are the same. I have no idea what strain it is, but we have results. It's lucky both for us and all of Croatia, which imposed measures a week later (than Varazdin County), that we insisted on them. The number of infections has been halved."

The head of the Varazdin County COVID-19 response team, Robert Vugrin, said he would rather not speculate on the new strain either. "We received absolutely no information on a new strain of the virus. No one told us there was even suspicion of that, let alone that we should so something about it. The only fact is that the numbers are falling, which doesn't point to any difference in the virus strain."

December 22, 2020 - E-passes in Croatia come into force at midnight. On the first day they were issued (December 21), 60% were rejected. 

Index.hr reports that on the first day of issuing e-passes, by 6 pm, more than 17,000 requests were resolved, and 60% were rejected.

As a reminder, from midnight on Tuesday to Wednesday, the Headquarters' decision comes into force, which prohibits travel to other counties from the place of residence or stay. Those who still want to travel must have an e-pass.

On Monday, the epropusnice.gov.hr webpage where you can apply for passes began working. By 6 pm, more than 35,000 pass requests had been submitted.

Interior Minister and head of the Civil Protection Headquarters Davor Bozinovic said for HRT on Monday night that by then, more than half of the requests for passes had been rejected.

"According to my information, more than 60 percent of the requests for e-passes have been rejected," Bozinovic said.

He said that the requirements for issuing passes are different. Still, most applications were submitted by companies that plan to continue operating, adding that the decision is temporary and preventive.

"It is preventive in the sense that people are encouraged to make as few close contacts as possible, especially when it comes to family reunification, which is often the case during the holidays, especially Christmas and New Year," Bozinovic said.

"People who do not have the conditions to cross the county border by any means of transport will be warned. Police officers have been engaged 24 hours a day since the beginning of the epidemic, and now about 800 police officers will be engaged at about 200 checkpoints to implement the travel ban between counties," he said.

Bozinovic also commented on the questionable constitutionality of the decision on the travel ban, stating that the Constitutional Court had already decided on the constitutionality of the Headquarters' decisions. To put it mildly, this is a questionable claim, as the Constitutional Court has not ruled on this particular ban on travel between counties.

"I think this decision is proportionate, preventive; it should last until January 8. It is preventive in addition to not only sending a message but also limiting contacts that are most common at this time of year and can cause a bad epidemiological situation after the New Year," said Bozinovic.

Bozinovic emphasized that the Government had already communicated before that a curfew would not be introduced and that a total lockdown would not be established.

"We are sticking to it, and we manage to balance it, of course, first of all, taking care of the protection of life and health of the population, but the economy is also important. The numbers have been falling lately, and we hope they won’t need to implement and make decisions on tougher measures. However, these measures could in principle be extended because we are at such a time of year when the virus is particularly virulent and spreads rapidly, especially indoors," he added.

Bozinovic's deputy Damir Trut also spoke about the passes on Dnevnik Nova TV.

"More than 35,000 requests were received by 6 pm. Thousands of emails were received in which citizens demanded a certain activity and a large number of phone calls. 50 percent were processed, of those 50 percent, 60 percent were rejected," Trut said.

He revealed why citizens are looking for e-passes. "They usually apply because of work, business reasons, or visiting parents or relatives."

Citizens have complained that it is almost impossible to get someone in the contact center.

"Today, there are 23 employees. There are several calls from citizens. It was technically impossible to answer everyone, so there is a voice machine, but there is no need to call. On koronavirus.hr, on the pages of Civil Protection, there are instructions you can read. There are answers to all the questions, and it is stated who can request an e-pass,” he explained.

He also stated that the police will have 200 checkpoints and 800 police officers. "People will likely try to pass without passes, but I believe that our citizens are conscientious and will respect the measures. The measures are there to protect us from infection," he notes.

He also explained what will happen if someone from Zagreb is found in Bjelovar. "The police have their own procedures. Of course, if they detect such a person, the police will escort them back. They will record them, and they will continue to go to trial," he says.

He also explained what the bus control would look like. “Police will be able to get on the buses and check to see if all passengers have e-passes,” he said.

And what about people who, for example, booked accommodation in Lika from Zagreb? Is it enough for them to show the reservation at the checkpoint, or do they need something else?

"All these citizens must request an e-pass and enclose a paid bill that must be paid by the day the decision takes effect. After that, they have the right and opportunity to obtain a pass," he explained.

Everything you need to know about getting e-passes in Croatia can be found HERE.

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

ZAGREB, Dec 21, 2020 - The director of Croatia's Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) said on Monday the European Medicines Agency's approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine confirmed that all Croatian citizens could be sure to have access to an effective vaccine whose benefits outweighed possible risks.

Earlier today, EMA recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for the vaccine Comirnaty, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, to prevent COVID-19 in people from 16 years of age.

EMA’s human medicines committee has completed its rigorous evaluation of Comirnaty, concluding by consensus that sufficiently robust data on the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine are now available, HALMED said in a press release.

HALMED evaluators have participated in this procedure from the start as members of EMA's scientific commissions and working groups, Tomic said. "After the vaccine is put on the market, we will continue to intensively monitor the efficacy and safety of its application together with the Croatian Institute of Public Health and other regulators in the European Union."

EMA's scientific opinion will be submitted to the European Commission that will decide by tomorrow at the latest to grant marketing authorisation, which will be valid in all EU and European Economic Area member states, including Croatia.

The Comirnaty clinical trial involved around 44,000 people and showed a 95% reduction in the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the people who received the vaccine, HALMED said.

The trial also showed around 95% efficacy in the participants at risk of severe COVID-19, including those with asthma, chronic lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or a body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2. 

Comirnaty is given as two injections at least 21 days apart. The most common side effects were usually mild or moderate and got better within a few days after vaccination.

As Comirnaty is recommended for a conditional marketing authorisation, the company that markets it will continue to provide results from the main trial, which is ongoing for two years. This trial and additional studies will provide information on how long protection lasts, how well the vaccine prevents severe COVID-19, how well it protects immunocompromised people, children and pregnant women, and whether it prevents asymptomatic cases.

The company will also carry out studies to provide additional assurance on the pharmaceutical quality of the vaccine as the manufacturing continues to be scaled up. Comirnaty will be closely monitored and subject to several activities that apply specifically to COVID-19 vaccines.

Although large numbers of people have received COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials, certain side effects may only emerge when millions of people are vaccinated, HALMED said. 

ZAGREB, Dec 21, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday that the COVID crisis had so far cost the health system HRK 927.4 million.

Data show that by December 18, HRK 574.4 million was spent on testing, HRK 268.9 million on treatment and more than HRK 83 million on sick leaves, Beros said at the national COVID-19 crisis management team's press conference.

He also said that a meeting was being held at the Health Ministry with drug wholesalers regarding the health system's debt to them.

Beros said that the number of new COVID-19 infections had started dropping.

The average number of services provided in all health institutions in Croatia is at 67.21% compared to the second week of December 2019.

"These are encouraging data as they show that despite the burden of COVID-19 positive patients we are finding ways, strength and opportunities to respond to other needs, especially in oncology," Beros said.

Despite the fact that the health system has completely adapted to COVID patients, the number of services provided in Zagreb's hospitals is at 74% compared to the second week of December last  year, and only the KB Dubrava hospital, which is completely focused on treating coronavirus patients, has provided 11% of other services.

Other patients using KB Dubrava's services, 3,993 of them, have been sent to other health institutions via the call centre, Beros said.

He added that there were also institutions like the Magdalena Clinic which is at 119% of provided services due to taking over some of KB Dubrava's cardiac surgery patients.

Beros said there would be no changes regarding the realisation of the right of health workers to a full salary after getting infected with COVID.

He said that all those who had got infected at work would receive 100% of their salary, but they have to ask their employer for confirmation.

(€1= HRK 7.5)