March the 29th, 2021 - Easter might be rapidly approaching, but this means very little for the country as the coronavirus pandemic and all of the various travel restrictions rage on. Croatian coastal tourism usually begins waking up with the arrival of Easter, but this year will be different as a result of the current unfavourable global situation.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, here in Croatia, the Easter holidays usually mark the beginning of a more intense arrival of guests, particularly along the Adriatic coast. However, due to the continuing pandemic, this year, for the second time in a row, this won't be the case. Hotels up and down the coast have a few reservations to boast of, but nothing in comparison to what they're used at this time of year, and most tourist workers are preparing anxiously for yet another uncertain and unstable tourist season.

Scenes from April 2019 for tourist workers now seem like a strange and very distant dreamlike memory, despite the fact that this year there are more tourists in the Zadar area than there were last year, when we were in a complete "lockdown". Most of these people are, however, Croatian tourists from other parts of the country. Due to the unfortunate epidemiological situation, the expectations for Easter in terms of Croatian coastal tourism are also quite poor.

"We're also afraid that what we have reserved at the minute will just end up being cancelled. Entries to Croatia have been simplified with these rapid coronavirus tests, but unfortunately for people returning home to neighbouring countries, things continue to be complicated,'' said Tomislav Fain, president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies.

Owing to the problems surrounding travel and lockdowns still reigning strong in many European countries, particularly in the UK, the expectations are that only Croatian residents travelling around the country are to be expected. Frane Skoblar from Turisthotel believes that Croatian hostels throughout this pandemic crisis have drawn the short straw due to their connection to air traffic, which has been unreliable and costly.

The short straw was also drawn by private accommodation owners/renters who have almost no reservations to speak of. On the other hand, hotels and large resorts claim that they're more or less satisfied with reservations for the upcoming Easter holidays.

"We're mainly focused on the Croatian market, and some guests from Austria and Slovenia are also coming," said Goran Sremec from Falkensteiner Hotel & Spa Iadera.

Guests feel safe in the camps as well. Misela Lastric (Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences Borik) says that they expect increased interest from local guests and that the bookings are looking very good for now, adding that they're currently at more than half capacity.

The ongoing pandemic has completely changed the tourist picture all over the world, with Croatian coastal tourism taking a very, very heavy blow.

"There will certainly be no Slovenes coming here at this moment in time. On the days of Corpus Christi, which come after that, the Germans traditionally come, and you know yourselves what sort of situation they've found themselves in,'' said Mario Paleka, director of the Tourist Board of the City of Zadar.

All tourist workers expect the first large number of tourists to arrive only in June, reports HRT, and that still depends entirely on the epidemiological situation not only in Croatia but in the country's emitting markets, as well as the rate of vaccination.

For current coronavirus information specific to Croatia, including border and travel rules, as well as testing centres across the country, bookmark this page.

March 29, 2021 - Croatian scientist Igor Štagljar and his team have developed and presented a new and faster, more accurate, and cheaper serological test to detect antibodies against the coronavirus. 

24 Sata reports that given the name SATiN, professor Štagljar says that the test will very quickly and accurately, at minimal cost, monitor the antibody levels in the blood of people who have been vaccinated with some of the already-approved vaccines, all to keep the pandemic under control until we reach collective immunity by vaccinating around 70% of the world's population.

The Štagljar Laboratory at the University of Toronto School of Medicine houses 13 young scientists from China, Iran, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Russia, Romania, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Canada. Most of them began their scientific journey in their own respective homelands and later sought their place under the sun here, with Štagljar, a professor and director at the Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto School Medicine. Štagljar has dedicated his career so far to the study of cancer, with a particular emphasis placed on lung cancer. However, back in January last year, when the pandemic began, his team began studying the new SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Dr. Zhong Yao, the first author of a serological test who was published recently in the well-known journal Nature Communications is one of Štagljar's closest associates, and a native of Wuhan. In mid-January last year, Dr. Yao returned to Toronto after a month spent with his parents in his hometown. He told Štagljar about a highly contagious virus that causes respiratory symptoms in patients, which his colleagues, doctors from Wuhan, isolated. In contrast, the genomic sequence of the virus was published in a few days. Dr. Yao and part of Štagljar's lab immediately began working on a test to detect antibodies directly from the blood of people who had previously been infected with the new virus.

"I was worried about the situation in Wuhan at the beginning because my parents are there. However, I was not so afraid because I am a researcher of medical sciences. There are two reasons why the pandemic in China has remained under control - the government has taken strong action, and people are taking it seriously and following the rules," says Dr. Yao, who is also a member of Štagljar's immediate team that worked on the test.

Everyone is very proud of their work and that it will serve to curb the pandemic. About twenty approved serological tests on the market detect antibodies to the coronavirus, but SATiN, Štagljar explained, does it much faster. Namely, it takes less than an hour and just a drop of blood to detect if there are antibodies and how many. Standard testing also takes much longer, about six hours, and is more expensive. The average price of the SATiN test is $2, while others on the market cost $25 dollars.

It will help detect the duration of immunity to the coronavirus in patients who have had different experiences with COVID-19, from asymptomatic to severe. In addition, it will potentially reveal what threshold antibody levels are needed for protection after natural infection and vaccination. It took this test development team only seven months. Their invention, they say, will play a vital role in relaxing economic measures and keeping the pandemic under control because it quickly and accurately reveals which part of the population in a particular country has already been infected. According to Štagljar, the test has been protected by a patent (owned by the University of Toronto, Dr. Yao, and Štagljar,) and it is already being applied to a sample of 10,000 residents of the province of Ontario (capital Toronto), which has 14.5 million inhabitants.

They will get a representative picture of the exact number of those who are immune to SARS-CoV-2. In another large epidemiological study, their test measured the number of antibodies (so-called IgG groups) after vaccination with some of the three currently approved vaccines in Canada - Pfizer, Modern, and AstraZeneca. Finally, they are working on an interesting study that uses the SATiN test to try to prove the presence of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in breast milk once vaccinated.

In simplified terms, SATiN is the first serological test for COVID-19 that 'shines.' It uses luciferase protein, which emits light, and the flash of light generated in the test detects antibody levels.

"It's nice that the idea turned out to be something real. I am proud to have done something to fight the pandemic," said Dr. Yao briefly and modestly when asked what this achievement means to him. His scientific path is quite standard - he completed his undergraduate studies in China and his postgraduate studies in Israel. After postdoctoral research, he worked as a scientist and is currently a senior research associate at the University of Toronto. Before immigrating to Canada, he contacted Štagljar, who offered him a place in Toronto. When asked if and how scientific work in China and Canada differs, Dr. Yao only briefly answered that "there are some differences."

Štagljar's laboratory is nice because Igor is a great leader who gave him the freedom to develop his various ideas, Yao concluded.

Dr. Yao added that life in China has returned to normal - they record only sporadic imported cases of infection. Restaurants work, life goes on, but people are still very careful. Many still wear masks, and older people avoid crowds. The majority of the population is ready to be vaccinated, concluded Dr. Yao.

Jelena Tomić is another member of the team that worked on the test. Tomić was born in Sarajevo, from which the family emigrated to Canada during the war in 1992 when Jelena was only 12 years old. She says that she did most of her adult schooling in Canada. Little by little, every shift in her career has led her to this lab, where she is delighted. Štagljar is an extremely cheerful and encouraging, optimistic boss, who appreciates hard work, Jelena said. This serological test can change the "pandemic game" for only two dollars per sample. Its modularity will allow clinical laboratories to monitor the level of antibodies to any (viral) infection, she added.

Jelena is a multi-award-winning scientist in molecular biology and genetics, but she is also involved in humanitarian work, helping with projects aimed at finding homes for the homeless.

Farzaneh Aboualizadeh is a research technician at Štagljar's lab, an Iranian woman who arrived in Canada seven years ago. She graduated in biology in Iran and then moved to India, where she earned a master’s degree in biotechnology. She worked at home at the University of Medical Sciences, and first volunteered in Štagljar's lab. She has been employed there for the last three years. As an immigrant, she admits, it was not easy to start a new life in a different world.

"I believe that it is different everywhere and that each side of the world has its advantages and disadvantages. But I now sincerely enjoy my job and this team. I always felt at home there," said Aboualizadeh. Štagljar is an excellent supervisor but also a friend.

“It is a great honor to be a part of this amazing project at this difficult time. I feel that as a scientist, I have returned something to society," she concluded.

Jamie Snider is a senior research associate in the lab, a Canadian who has worked there for 13 years. He is very interested in studying cellular function at the molecular level so that we can better understand and treat diseases. While completing his graduate studies, he recalled hearing about an interesting job with Štagljar and was lucky enough to join his team shortly after his doctorate. He works on a wide range of projects that also address drug discovery and mapping important interactions within cells that give us a better understanding of their work. Most of his research, he adds, involves developing and applying new technologies, which is particularly exciting to him.

“I am happy to have had the opportunity to participate in helping Zhong and Igor, and with the rest of the team, make this test real. I think this is a fantastic new technology that will make a big difference in the fight against the pandemic," concluded Jamie. The team also includes Luka Drecun, who completed a specialist program in Immunology at the University of Toronto and continued his molecular genetics education. He was a passionate basketball player in high school in Canada and a proud fan of the Montenegro football club Lovćen.

The test is already available worldwide, including in Croatia, if the country wants to apply for it, Štagljar said about it coming to the Croatian market. He adds that it does not depend on him but the responsible institutions in Croatia. Štagljar closely monitors what is happening in Croatia and writes about what information is released to the public. He was extremely active on this issue on Facebook but has not commented on current events about the pandemic for the last three months. 

"I simply gave up rolling in the ‘Croatian pandemic mud.’ In short, I realized that arguing with dissidents takes a lot of time and does not bring any benefit, so I completely turned to science, related to my laboratory at the University of Toronto," concludes the scientist, whose SATiN test has been highlighted in the Canadian media.

Štagljar does not believe in the calculations according to which 25 to 40 percent of the population in Croatia has contracted the coronavirus. Impossible, because less than two percent of survivors have been proven in Canada, and these are cities with millions of people, such as Toronto.

"Unfortunately, self-proclaimed experts have appeared in Croatia who provide people, desperate because of the situation, with the information that these people want to hear, but they often have nothing to do with reality. It is not science but populism, for which there is no place in science. It is not at all easy to become a scientist, much less successful in the world. When you become that, you have no urge to talk about it on social networks, but your work speaks for you," concluded Štagljar.

For the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 28 March 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,321 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 21 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Sunday.

The number of active cases stands at 10,092. There are 1,201 COVID patients in hospitals, 121 of whom are on ventilators.

The death toll related to coronavirus has gone up to 5,893.

Since the start of the epidemic, a total of 267,222 people have contracted the novel coronavirus, and 251,237 of them have recovered, including 998 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 30,327 people in self-isolation.

A total of 1,527,320 people have been tested, 7,589 of whom over the past 24 hours.

To date, 348,648 people have been vaccinated, including 266,900 of those who received one dose of vaccine and 81,748 who received both doses. A total of 430,396 doses of vaccine have been used.

For the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia, CLICK HERE.

March 28, 2021 - The Croatian Institute of Public Health has changed the recommendations on priorities for COVID-19 testing and announces new rules for vaccinated people and COVID-19 recoveries in Croatia. 

N1 reports that the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CNIPH) has announced that the exemption from testing and quarantine is being extended for all those who have recovered from COVID-19 or have been vaccinated against it. According to the new recommendations, instead of the previous three months, it is unnecessary to go into quarantine or test for six months after recovering from COVID-19 or receiving the vaccination against it.

Also, the CNIPH states that the UK variant of the virus has been removed from the list of variants for which quarantine lasts 14 days and for which testing is mandatory upon completion of quarantine.

Other rules have not changed, and to reduce the spread of infection, all patients' close contacts are referred to health surveillance in quarantine/self-isolation. Close contacts that are part of a collective in which it is essential to assess the extent of infection or work with a vulnerable population are recommended to be tested by PCR test or rapid antigen test within five days of exposure.

Close contacts are subject to health surveillance in quarantine/self-isolation for ten days from the last close contact with an infected person, according to the CNIPH.

However, there are some exceptions. Based on the history or results of a screening test for new variants, if it is suspected that a patient is infected with a variant of the virus with a higher potential for spread, contact quarantine lasts 14 days from the last contact with an infected person. Close contacts of persons who are sequenced to be infected with a variant of concern should be tested on the last day of quarantine. Currently, this applies to the Brazilian and South African variants of the virus.

Detailed recommendations of the CNIPH on handling contacts of infected persons and termination of self-isolation/quarantine can be read HERE.

For the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 27 March 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,790 new cases of coronavirus infection and 18 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases stands at 9,790. There are 1,148 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, 121 of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of the infection, a total of 265,901 people have been infected and 5,872 of them have died.

A total of 250,239 people have recovered, including 1,034 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 29,984 people in self-isolation.

To date, 1,519,731 people have been tested, 8,291 of whom over the past 24 hours.

To date, 341,656 people have been vaccinated, of whom 260,126 have received one shot while 81,530 have received both. So far 423,186 vaccine doses have been administered.

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

March 27, 2021 - Will there be at least another 500,000 Pfizer doses in Croatia? If the EU Summit negotiations successful, Croatia could vaccinate more than half of the adult population with a single dose of vaccine by June 30, 2021. 

Jutarnji List reports that if the negotiations of the permanent representatives of the EU member states in COREPER are successful, Croatia could vaccinate just over half of the adult population with one COVID-19 vaccine dose by June 30, which would bring it closer to the EU average.

This is the essence of the European Council meeting held on Thursday, at which Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković advocated that 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, which will arrive in the second quarter of this year, be distributed so that more doses are given to those members who are being the EU vaccination average because they were left without large quantities of vaccines ordered from AstraZeneca.

Croatia has missed a lot because only 17 percent of the promised AstraZeneca doses arrived in Croatia. Thus, the country is currently third in the EU in terms of the number of vaccinated citizens with one dose, followed by Latvia and Bulgaria. No agreement was reached at the European Council. Still, the joint statement emphasized that the doses would be distributed according to the principle of European solidarity, which would have to be agreed upon by the political body. That fact alone gives us hope that Croatia could do well.

Namely, out of 100 million doses planned for delivery in the fourth quarter, Pfizer will deliver 10 million doses in the second quarter. They will now negotiate what percentage will go to the countries that lag behind the most and how much to all others. 

Among the numerous proposals was that all 10 million doses go to the four, five, or six most severely deprived countries, including Croatia, but this could not pass because each country wants certain doses for itself. It was mentioned that Croatia could receive as many as 1.4 million doses by the end of June, but that, Prime Minister Plenković explained yesterday, was just one of the proposals.

While the amount of doses Croatia is now counting on is still unclear, given that it is a matter of negotiations, we know that a little more than half a million Pfizer doses would bring Croatia closer to the average by the end of June. With this dynamic, Croatia could have more than half of the adult population vaccinated.

Some countries have demanded that the principle continue, with these 10 million doses, to be exclusively proportional, i.e., concerning the number of inhabitants, but this would be unfavorable for Croatia because it would receive only 90,000 doses June 30, which would still lag behind the EU average.

As things stand now, Croatia will get far more than that; the goal is more than half a million to make up for the loss with others.

According to these calculations, Bulgaria should get the most, given the population and the fact that it is at the bottom of the EU in terms of vaccination.

"The conclusion on that topic was to find an agreement on the ratio of distributing those 10 million doses in the spirit of solidarity, which means that those who have less will get more," said Plenković yesterday and later explained that EU leaders support compensating Croatia for the lack of vaccines. 

The good news from the meeting is that the leaders agreed to distribute these doses according to the principle of solidarity. Still, the not-so-good news is that the rest of the vaccine will be distributed as before, according to the "pro-rata" principle. However, if the first goal is achieved, then further distribution according to the principle of proportionality is less unfavorable for Croatia.

These are the two messages from the summit that ended on Thursday before midnight. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's idea to "distribute the vaccine more fairly" between member states has only been understood when it comes to an additional 10 million doses without Austria, which, according to others, has not been missed.

Kurz was not only not supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel but also by Mark Rutte from the Netherlands. Austria will not be able to count on abandoning the principle of dividing the vaccine "pro-rata" according to the number of inhabitants and according to the quantity ordered by the states from individual producers. They won’t be able to count on most of these 10 million doses either.

However, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, and the Czech Republic can benefit from this. When Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he is ready to agree to give more to Croatia, that is important news. Rutte is a classic representative of the school that in diplomacy, it is necessary to go cold-headed but also cold-hearted. So, if the principle of solidarity is agreed upon, which means that some need to give more for others to get more, the factual situation should also be taken into account. And the fact is that Austria, unlike Croatia and Bulgaria, does not lag far behind others in vaccination. Moreover, Austria is even above the EU average.

According to the plan presented by Ursula von der Leyen at the summit, 360 million doses will be delivered in the second quarter. But of that, just 70 million AstraZeneca, 200 million Pfizer doses, 35 million Moderna doses, and 55 million Johnson & Johnson.

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

March the 27th, 2021 - Mass Zagreb citizen vaccination against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is set to take place just after Easter.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, following Easter, a large mass Zagreb citizen vaccination point will be organised here in the Croatian capital. This was confirmed by Dr. Zvonimir Sostar, the director of Zagreb's Dr. Andrija Stampar Institute.

"We're preparing for a large vaccination point to be placed at the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam), and the desire is for it to be on World Health Day on April the 7th, 2021. Zagreb will do everything it can to carry out the vaccination process according to the current plan,'' explained Dr. Zvonimir Sostar for Vecernji list.

Vaccine delivery dynamics, which have been causing tremendous problems recently, are key to realising that plan. At this large vaccination point, Zagreb could vaccinate about 6,000 citizens a day, which, with six days of vaccination, would be approximately 36,000 vaccinated people per week. In one month, that would be between 150,000 and 200,000 vaccinated people from just this one location.

Despite the plans, vaccine deliveries continue to be uncertain. For the third week in a row now, a planned shipment of Moderna still hasn't arrived, which is a vaccine that has otherwise been delivered regularly so far.

Just over 100,000 people have been vaccinated in Zagreb, and in the first phase, these were the users of homes for the elderly, the staff working at said care homes and healthcare employees. In the second phase, the elderly and chronically ill patients were vaccinated in health centres - of which about 70 percent were vaccinated at health centre ''mini-points'', where teams were vaccinated outside of normal working hours. About 6,000 of Croatia's healthcare workers were vaccinated at the Dr. Stampar Institute, where about two hundred citizens are being vaccinated every day.

As of this week, outpatient clinics in Zagreb are no longer receiving the same number of vaccine doses as they were previously. Those with more patients over the age of 65 and chronic unwell patients, regardless of their age, have now received 32 doses (20 doses of AstraZeneca and 12 doses of Pfizer each), and those with fewer patients in these categories received twelve doses of vaccine each.

So far, each clinic has received 112 coronavirus vaccine doses in four weeks, between 26 and 32 doses per week, depending on the amount of AstraZeneca doses received.

For current information on coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel and border rules, as well as testing centres across the country, bookmark this page.

March the 27th, 2021 - The main man of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), Luka Burilovic, has stated his desire to have Croatian exporters seen as priority when it comes to getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, highly positioned people from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) and Croatian Exporters (HIZ) have asked the National Civil Protection Headquarters to put enterprises and their employees, such as Croatian exporters, engaged in international business on the priority vaccination list.

It is increasingly certain, as they pointed out in their statement, that most countries will prescribe a mandatory vaccination measure as a condition for strengthening exports, ie participation in international activities such as various types of conferences, fairs and forums.

Therefore, the leaders of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, HOK and HIZ have jointly sent a letter to the National Civil Protection Headquarters to make Croatian exporters as vaccination priorities.

"Going abroad is necessary for export activities, as well as for maintaining existing relations and negotiating new ones, and this is crucial for the entire economy. The organisers of international fairs are increasingly asking for certificates of vaccination from all participants, which is an additional reason for their urgent inclusion in the vaccination protocol,'' said the President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Luka Burilovic.

The president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce says that the daily migrations of workers to neighbouring countries should be taken into account, especially in areas of the country like Medjimurje, Varazdin and Krapina-Zagorje counties.

"For all of them, employers have to bear the costs of PCR tests, which creates a significant financial cost for them and additionally burdens their business," warned Burilovic.

For current information on coronavirus specific to Croatia, including border and travel rules, as well as testing centres across the country, bookmark this page.

March the 27th, 2021 - Croatian businesses are set to get another very welcome cash injection of 200 million euros, but for the first time in the pandemic, HBOR will be the one which also needs to fulfill certain requirements.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, another 200 million euros will be available to Croatian businesses for favourable loans to provide liquidity in these continued difficult business conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, which the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) will receive through a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

At a recently held session, the Croatian Government gave approval to Finance Minister Zdravko Maric to conclude an agreement with the IBRD on this arrangement, and the state will be a joint guarantor for HBOR's loan, which will be agreed for a repayment period of 30 years.

The project intends to use the largest part of the money for business loans for working capital, while another part of it, up to a maximum of 30 percent, would be directed to help in the financial restructuring of Croatian companies.

The loans would be intended for small and medium-sized Croatian businesses, in majority private ownership, primarily to exporters, with the inclusion of the so-called quasi-exporters, ie enterprises from the service sector of tourism and logistics, on whose business the ongoing coronavirus crisis left a negative mark, but they still managed to maintain financial sustainability.

Croatian businesses with poor access to capital and in less developed regions will have an advantage in accessing these loans, as will companies in which women are the owners or managers. The focus will also be primarily placed on younger companies, which have been on the market for less than five years.

The development bank says it will approve loans to Croatian businesses after a contract with the IBRD is concluded soon, and the conditions under which companies will have access are equal to those of standard working capital loan programmes.

What is specific when it comes to this particular new arrangement is the provision that out of 200 million euros, 120 million euros will be immediately available to Croatian businesses, while the remaining 80 million euros will be disbursed and disbursed by HBOR only after it meets certain additional conditions prescribed by the IBRD, which are related to strengthening the institutional capacity of HBOR as a development bank.

What the definition of HBOR's institutional strengthening encompasses will be made public after the IBRD announces the conclusion of its arrangement with HBOR.

However, this is, as was laid out in the government decision, the first time that such conditions are being incorporated into the Financial Intermediation Project for the institutional strengthening of HBOR, and the financing of activities to meet these conditions, as stated in the decision, is provided from EU structural funds and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support, as well as from HBOR's own resources.

Finance Minister Zdravko Maric stated that he expects that this credit line to help Croatian businesses which have continued to be burdened with liquidity problems and it will also have a positive impact on commercial banks and encourage their stronger lending activity in monitoring the domestic economy, adding that he expects an additional 80 million euros to come in.

In using the funds set out by this credit arrangement, the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be able, with the exception of doing so through models of co-financing with commercial banks and lending through them, to approve loans directly, but only for Croatian businesses operating in less developed regions, a maximum of 25 percent of the loan amount, according to market principles.

For current coronavirus information specific to Croatia, including travel and border rules, as well as testing centres across the country, bookmark this page.

March 26, 2021 - A large percentage of tourism workers in Croatia are awaiting vaccination in hopes they can have a safer season this year. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that as many as 70 percent of respondents from the tourism sector expressed interest in vaccinations, according to a survey conducted by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Tourism Association.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports initiated the collection of employees' personal data through professional associations to implement the Vaccination Program, which would put the tourism sector in the priority group.

Priority within it is determined following epidemiological risks, with the advantage not only for employees who have greater contact with guests, but also, for example, those who, due to the nature of work, are unable to provide adequate social distance, especially indoors, such as in the kitchen.

Tourism workers in Croatia interested in vaccination were divided into two groups. The first includes operational staff (reception, waiters, household, drivers, guides, skippers, etc.) and those who are in direct contact with them daily. Priority number two refers to "administrative staff" and employees working at the dislocated location, which are not in daily contact with persons from the first group.

"The good news is that we are put on a priority list. All skippers will be vaccinated; there is no discussion. This is of vital interest to us, especially if clients would ask for it or if one of us is a member of a yacht crew," says Vicko Ozretić, president of the Croatian Skippers Association and members of the crew of yachts "Crosca."

The association has not yet received information on when the vaccination will begin, and they hope it will be as soon as possible. However, due to the current epidemiological situation across Europe and strict measures, they have little hope they'll start work soon.

All the figures, Ozretić says without hesitation, have dropped significantly.

"We believe in the peak season; we hope it will be good. As we have a pretty good pre-season and post-season in nautical tourism, we will be the first to feel the loss and lack of this pre-season because charters usually start slowly for Easter, and start working in May. It's about that now. Few of us will work this Easter, and maybe no one," says Ozretić. The first reservations are recorded only in June, but a new problem has arisen, further complicating business in nautical tourism.

"These are vouchers from last season. A part of these clients started asking for a refund, where charterers expect a big blow. This is one of the huge problems we are currently solving. It is easy to have one or two cancellations, but twenty or thirty are hard to bear," explains Ozretić.

The problem with voucher cancellations has escalated currently, as cases rise across Europe due to the rapid spread of new coronavirus strains.

Are travelers giving up even in the postseason?

"September is still under question; for now, what is booked is standing, but these are more or less bookings from last year. September is a ways away; it is no longer booked as in the period before the pandemic. No one can know anything more in advance. Everything is uncertain," concludes Vicko Ozretić.

For the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia, CLICK HERE.