ZAGREB, 19 October, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 8,862 coronavirus tests and of them, 1,741 have been positive (19.6%), the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Tuesday.

There are currently 9,894 active cases, including 947 hospitalised patients, and of them 128 are placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 21 COVID patients have died, raising the COVID-related death toll to 8,928.

Since 25 February 2020 when Croatia registered it first case of the infection with the novel virus, over 2.98 million tests have been conducted showing that 429,974 persons have caught the virus. Of them, 411,152 have recovered, including 1,125 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, over 3.52 million vaccine doses have been administered, and 52% of the adult population have fully been vaccinated.

ZAGREB, 18 Oct 2021- The head of the national COVID-19 crisis management team, Davor Božinović, said on Monday, ahead of the start of the administration of the third vaccine dose, that vaccination was the best prevention against serious illness and hospitalization.

"We can protect ourselves from the most serious illness, individually and as a community, if we accept the fact that science, not just in this epidemic but in previous ones too, has helped humankind to survive," he told the press in Našice.

He added that "those who don't trust science first of all harm themselves, and then the community."

He said the recent rise in new cases meant a rise in hospitalizations and that vaccination was the proper defense against that.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 18 Oct 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 319 coronavirus cases and 11 related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

There are 9,299 active cases, including 945 hospitalized patients, 119 of whom are on ventilators, while 18,660 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 428,233 coronavirus cases to date, including 8,907 deaths and 410,027 recoveries. 1,293 people have recovered in the past 24 hours.

To date, 2,974,167 persons have been tested for the virus, including 2,815 in the past 24 hours, and 46.09% of the population has been vaccinated against COVID, including 55.25% of adults, of whom 51.93% have been fully vaccinated.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 17 Oct, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic has affected the mental health of students, but it has also raised awareness of the importance of social contacts and in-person classes, a survey has shown.

The survey was carried out by the Agency for Science and Higher Education (AZVO) from 2 to 12 September, covering nearly 4,300 university students at all levels from across Croatia. Postgraduate students were asked to complete e-questionnaires.

The survey has revealed that direct contacts have no alternative, which is why it is important to return to face-to-face classes while at the same time complying with the epidemiological measures for the duration of the pandemic, AZVO's acting director Jasmina Havranek said.

In the last academic year, the majority of classes (40%) were taught only online, with 49% of senior graduates and 29% of first-year undergraduates attending such classes. 63% of freshmen said that they did not gain a full experience of studying because of the pandemic.

Over 35% of respondents cited classroom learning as the desired form of learning in the current academic year, while 29% said they preferred online classes.

As for vaccination against COVID-19, 60% of those interviewed said they would not support mandatory vaccination for students and faculty, while 25% said they would.

The survey revealed a considerable level of dissatisfaction among students with their lives compared with the pre-pandemic period, with 59% of them saying they were much less satisfied. Part-time students were more satisfied than their full-time colleagues.

The pandemic has also undermined the sense of belonging to the student community as 73% of students said they did not have a chance to meet new people as before. In post-pandemic life, the majority of students (71%) are looking forward to socialising with their colleagues without restrictions, and as many of them are looking forward to not having to wear face masks.

As many as 52% of students perceived their mental health as being worse or much worse than it was before the pandemic. Students were mostly concerned about the possibility of their infecting people close to them with coronavirus (57%), while they were least concerned about themselves getting infected (17%).

During the last academic year, 50% of students experienced social isolation and loneliness, and as many said they had trouble with their attention span and concentration. 46% felt anxious and 29% depressed, 43% used social networks in an unhealthy way, 32% expressed an interest in in-person counselling, while a quarter of them said they felt much better than before the pandemic.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN"s dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 17 Oct, 2021 - Croatia has registered 1,301 new coronavirus cases and 19 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Sunday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 10,284. This includes 903 infected persons who are receiving hospital treatment, of whom 116 are on ventilators. 19,591 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus infection was confirmed in the country, 427,914 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,896 have died and 408,734 have recovered, including 1,329 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 2,971,352 people have been tested for coronavirus to date, including 8,054 in the last 24 hours.

So far 3,520,008 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, with 46.08 percent of the total population, or 55.24 percent of adults, having been vaccinated. To date, 1,870,176 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, of whom 1,754,676 have been fully inoculated, which makes up 51.92 percent of the adult population.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - The KBC Rijeka hospital has denied reports by several media outlets about the death of a 76-year-old patient, noting that the man was admitted in August and died on 4 September and was not one of the patients who earlier this week got infected with coronavirus at the hospital's gastroenterology ward.

Regarding media reports about a 76-year-old man who died at KBC Rijeka and who had been vaccinated, was negative upon admission and was subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19, the hospital said that that was not the patient who earlier this week was diagnosed with COVID-19.

The patient from the media reports was admitted in August to the hospital's neurology ward for the treatment of the carotid arteries. He was negative for coronavirus upon admission, having been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but a few days later he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died on 4 September, the hospital said.

Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 at the KBC Rijeka hospital's gastroenterology ward this past week and they were temporarily relocated to the ward for COVID-19 patients, the hospital said.

They are all stable and the timely application of epidemiological measures has prevented the further spreading of the virus, the hospital stressed.

All staff at the gastroenterology ward were tested for the virus, and the infection was detected in one doctor, two nurses who were not in contact with the infected patients, and one non-medical staff member.

The hospital believes that the infection was brought into the hospital system by a patient during the period of incubation.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - Commenting on the coronavirus entering the hospital system and claiming the life of a patient in Rijeka, Health Minister Vili Beroš on Saturday warned again about the importance of strong epidemiological rules in the health system, notably hospitals.

"The case of the patient at the KBC Rijeka hospital shows that there is no 100% safety, that the virus cannot be prevented at all times, and that it cannot be detected at a certain stage of the incubation period," the minister said, stressing that the most important thing was that KBC Rijeka staff had acted appropriately and that epidemiologists had prevented the further spreading of the virus.

Beroš noted that other patients were stable and that "there is no danger of the virus further spreading."

According to media reports, a 76-year-old man, admitted to KBC Rijeka for treatment of the carotid arteries, was negative for coronavirus upon admission, having been vaccinated with two doses, however, five days later he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died.

Beroš once again called on citizens to get vaccinated, noting that of the 15 latest fatalities, 12 had not been vaccinated.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - In a comment on protests held outside the homes of members of the national coronavirus crisis management team, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday that such shows were unnecessary as the government was acting responsibly in the coronavirus crisis.

"All those shows... are unnecessary because the government has acted reasonably, responsibly, appropriately and sensitively with regard to all possible segments of state functioning in the 600 days of the pandemic; other countries had months-long lockdowns," the PM said after a conference on agriculture, fisheries and forestry in Zagreb.

Noting that in Croatia there was a ban only on large gatherings and the work of night clubs, Plenković said that the protests did not seem rational, speculating if their real purpose was to generate social unrest.

About a dozen citizens gathered outside Health Minister Vili Beroš's home on Thursday evening after a Religious Instruction teacher from Križevci called on them to do so on his Facebook profile due to restrictions on visits to hospitalised children.

Beroš said that he understood their dissatisfaction, but that the place for dealing with such matters should be the Health Ministry.

Another group of protesters on Friday protested outside the home of the head of Zagreb's Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić.

Asked if the situation could escalate and if members of the coronavirus crisis management team were under police protection since more protests had been announced, Plenković said that as far as he was aware, they were not.

Should someone resort to violence, they will be given police protection, he said, recalling that until the October 2020 terrorist attack "we had been very easy to approach."

"We are a normal, small Central European and Mediterranean country, civilised, warm, and we are good hosts... There are, on occasion, violent individuals but the Croatian people in general are not violent. These are exceptions. I call on them to calm down and be reasonable, there is no reason for drama, there are much worse situations than this," he said.

Asked about a possible parliamentary vote of no confidence in Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, Plenković said that no opposition motion questioning the government's work had been successful so far and neither would the latest one.

For Croatia's latest news, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 9,410 coronavirus tests, and of them every fifth (that is 1,947) has been positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Saturday. 

There are currently 10,331 active COVID-19 cases, including 871 hospitalised patients, and of them 114 were placed on ventilators on Saturday morning,  or 13% of the COVID hospitalisations in the country.

In the last 24 hours, 15 people infected with the novel virus have died, raising the COVID-related death to 8,877. 

Since the first registered case of the infection with the novel virus in Croatia on 25 February 2020, as many as 2,963,298 tests have been performed, and 426,613 have turned out to be positive.

To date, 407,405 persons have recovered from this disease, including 1,412 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Croatia's share of the vaccinated adults stands now at 55.19%.

Over 1.86 million have received at least one shot, and 1,752,644 have fully been inoculated.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 15 Oct 2021 - Croatia has registered 1,758 new coronavirus cases and 15 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Friday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 9,811. This includes 873 infected persons who are receiving hospital treatment, of whom 118 are placed on ventilators. 19,501 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus infection was confirmed in the country, 424,666 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,862 have died and 405,993 have recovered, including 1,552 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 2,953,888 people have been tested for coronavirus to date, including 9,228 in the last 24 hours.

As of Thursday, 3,510,623 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, with 45.97 percent of the total population, or 55.12 percent of adults, having been vaccinated. To date, 1,865,665 people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, of whom 1,749,058 have been fully inoculated, which makes up 51.76 percent of the adult population.

For more news,CLICK HERE.