March the 24th, 2021 - The Croatian Tourist Board budget has been stretched due to the issues caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has taken the entire world into its iron grip. As a result, cash is tighter than usual, but support will still be given to some in the form of promotion.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, at a session of the Tourist Board of the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) held on Monday, a decision was adopted on the announcement of a call for expressions of interest for the implementation of marketing cooperation with the organisers of TOP events and top Croatian athletes throughout 2021.

This is a particular sort of programme that includes marketing collaborations related to important sporting, entertainment and other such events with great media visibility that are in the function of raising the attractiveness and recognisability of the overall outrist offer boasted by the Republic of Croatia, but also includes collaborations with top Croatian athletes to promote Croatia as an attractive tourist destination to viewers across Europe and the world.

Back during pandemic-dominated 2020, this call didn't get the green light because of the uncertain and entirely unpredecented situation in which we found ourselves, which was sponsored by a significant budget cut for this project when compared to the time before the pandemic struck. Back in record 2019, the budget stood at 9 million kuna, and this year  the current plan is to spend 5 million kuna at the absolute most.

"We're approaching the Easter holidays, which in previous years would mean the beginning of more intensive tourist trips in and to Croatia. This year, due to the current situation, we don't really expect the greater realisation of tourist traffic, but in compliance with the prescribed measures and protocols, we expect tourist activities with an emphasis on the domestic market, as well as markets such as Germany, Slovenia, Italy or the Czech Republic, to go ahead,'' explained Kristjan Stanicic when discussing the Croatian Tourist Board budget and how things stand with the country's main markets.

Minister of Tourism and Sport Nikolina Brnjac pointed out that testing and vaccination against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, remain among the key elements of tourist season preparation for this summer, revealing that the Safe stay in Croatia project has so far involved almost 10,000 tourism stakeholders across the country.

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ZAGREB, 23 March, 2021 - Croatia expects a law to be adopted and technical preparations to be completed by June to enable the introduction of a digital green certificate proving that its holder has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has recovered from it, or has tested negative, an official said on Tuesday.

Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, the State Secretary for Europe, today took part in an informal conference of European affairs ministers, at which she stressed the importance of ensuring a stable, predictable and faster delivery of vaccines so that the common EU goal of inoculating 70% of the EU population by summer could be achieved.

She stressed that member-states should be equal in vaccine distribution, and that it was necessary to have a balanced approach to vaccine distribution as some countries currently have a lower vaccination rate due to delays in vaccine delivery, a statement said.

Metelko-Zgombić said that Croatia welcomed the European Commission's proposal for the introduction of digital green certificates that would facilitate free and safe travel within the EU.

She said that Zagreb "expects the adoption of the relevant legislative proposal and completion of technical preparations according to plan, by June, so that certificates could start to be used as soon as possible."

PM says Pfizer vaccine delivery to be stepped up

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today that work was underway on transferring the delivery of some of the vaccine supplies from the fourth to the second quarter so that the dynamic of vaccination could be stepped up before summer and that the vaccine in question was expected to be the Pfizer vaccine.

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

ZAGREB, 23 March, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has performed 8,177 tests for coronavirus and 956 of them, or 11.7%, have returned positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Tuesday.

Currently, there are 6,394 active cases in the country, and of them, 1,029  patients are receiving hospital treatment, including 92 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, the death toll related to COVID-19 has increased by 22 to 5,808.

Since the outbreak of this infectious disease in late February last year, as many as 1.485 million tests have been performed, and 258,745 people have turned out to be positive. Of them, 246,543 have recovered, including 820 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 21,804 persons are self-isolating.

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

March the 23rd, 2021 - Ivo Usmiani, the founder of Croatia's largest and by far most successful pharmaceutical company has spoken out as issues surrounding the coronavirus vaccine across the European Union continue to dominate, claiming that his company is more than ready to start producing vaccines, but they require the proper licensing first.

Problems with the delivery of the ordered amount of vaccines to each EU member state continue to be at the forefront of the ongoing pandemic. The advent of the vaccine was supposed to mark the end of the global pandemic, but with an embarrassingly slow process taking place across the EU, with smaller member states like Croatia suffering the most, it seems that the end is still nowhere near in sight.

Could Ivo Usmiani's highly successful pharmaceutical company step forward and propose a solution to Croatia's pressing coronavirus question? Potentially.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the founder and one of the largest shareholders of the Croatian pharmaceutical company Jadran-Galenski laboratorij (JGL), Ivo Usmiani, said that the Croatian pharmaceutical industry has the potential to produce vaccines, and that he is ready to start.

"We have sterile production and we could quickly start producing vaccines, either vector or mRNA types, but only on the condition that we get the license to do so from a vaccine manufacturer," Ivo Usmiani quite plainly told Vecernji list during a recent interview.

“We have the knowledge and the skills for the production of sterile pharmaceutical forms, as well as the proper technological platform for that. In Rijeka, we also have a Science Centre of Excellence with a dozen quality viral immunologists and molecular biotechnologists, as well as Professor Stipan Jonjic, all of whom deal with vector vaccines, and with whom we often cooperate and with whom we could achieve strong synergies,'' added Ivo Usmiani.

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ZAGREB, 22 March, 2021 - The presence of the coronavirus has been proved in Zagreb's sewage system, the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) said on Monday.

"The isolation of the viral RNA from wastewater indicates that parts of the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus are present in the sewage system, which confirms that infected people discharge the virus through their faeces and other excretions into sewage," the HZJZ said on the occasion of World Water Day, observed on 22 March.

The HZJZ tested wastewater in Zagreb in collaboration with the Zagrebačke Otpadne Vode wastewater company and the Croatian Office of the World Health Organisation. The project was carried out from 1 December 2020 to 18 February 2021 and was financed by the German government.

The testing results indicate that the viral load of wastewater is in correlation with the number of active cases of coronavirus infection in the city. The number of active cases in Zagreb was 3,913 in early December, dropping to below 1,000 by the end of that month.

The number of copies of the viral RNA was considerably higher in the first half of December, decreasing by the end of the month. The decrease correlated with stricter epidemiological measures that were imposed between 28 November and 21 December, the HZJZ said.

The number of active coronavirus cases in January 2021 ranged from 1,113 to 318, when a drop in the number of copies of the viral genome were recorded in wastewater samples. The low number of copies of the viral genome was also found in February 2021 when the number of active cases in Zagreb ranged from 434 to 280.

The HZJZ noted that the wastewater in the sewage system is affected by precipitation which dilutes it, which is why a low number of copies of the viral genome was observed in days with considerable precipitation.

It also pointed out that the proof of the presence of the viral RNA does not prove the viability of the virus, but that tests like this can be used to monitor trends and provide an early warning of the virus circulating in the population.

After 18 February, wastewater sampling has continued once a week in accordance with the European Commission's recommendation on monitoring the coronavirus in wastewater.

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

ZAGREB, 22 March, 2021 - By Sunday, 390,657 doses of vaccine had been used with a total of 311,448 people vaccinated, including 232,239 of those who received one dose of vaccine and 79,209 who received both doses, Croatia's  COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Monday.

Medical regulator HALMED has so far received 1,896 reports of suspected side effects of vaccines against COVID-19, of which 1,064 for Pfizer, 108 for Moderna and 722 for AstraZeneca. In two cases it was not clear which vaccine caused side effects. 

The HZJZ institute head, Krunoslav Capak, said that the vaccination process was continuing according to plan, adding that the first third of the second phase of vaccination, covering persons older than 65 years and chronic patients, had been completed. He said that younger people would be prioritised after the completion of the second phase. 

He recalled that Croatia had so far ordered 8.7 million doses of vaccine from different manufacturers, adding that greater deliveries were expected in the second quarter of the year.

Average age of infected people down from 49.9 to 42.5 years

The average age of infected people has decreased from 49.9 to 42.5 years, Capak said.

The director of Zagreb's Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić, said that the number of hospitalisations was increasing in Zagreb and Split, and that most of those hospitalised were aged between 50 and 60 years.

Asked by the press about the possibility of reinfection with COVID-19, Markotić cited a Danish study published in The Lancet journal showing that the protection against reinfection was about 79%.

However, people older than 65 were only about 47% protected on average. The conclusion is that people older than 65 years should be revaccinated even if they have recovered from COVID-19 because the risk of their reinfection is high. "People older than 65 are definitely more at risk," Markotić said.

Capak said that there were reports of several cases of reinfection in Croatia, but that their symptoms were mild.

Responding to a question about COVID passports for people who were vaccinated with the Chinese or Russian vaccine, the head of the national response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that talks had only just begun on issuing interoperable certificates at EU level to facilitate travel and that the situation in this regard would be clearer later this month.

"Some of the EU countries have taken the view that such certificates should be issued only for vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency. Croatia is not in that group of countries, but talks on this are still ongoing," Božinović said.

If the purpose of such certificates is to facilitate travel for those who have been tested, vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19, Božinović hopes that this will not put too tight restrictions on the tourism sector because most EU countries started by vaccinating elderly people, who are in a more advantageous position that young people as far as travel is concerned.

This issue should be dealt with by early June, but that does not mean that countries like Croatia will not do all they can to alleviate the situation in the tourism sector by then, Božinović said.

As for demands by some of the counties in Croatia for stricter measures, Božinović said that it was yet to be seen what local and county response teams would decide this week. He ruled out the possibility of passes being introduced for inter-regional travel in Croatia for the Easter holidays. He said that the aim was to contain the epidemic in the counties with higher incidence rates, adding that steps had already been taken to inspect compliance with the measures in place.

ZAGREB, 22 March, 2021 - The number of new coronavirus cases in Croatia has increased by 44% in the past week compared with the previous week, and the share of positive people among those tested was 14.3%, the national COVID-19 response team said at a press conference on Monday.

"In the week between 16 and 22 March, we had a total of 6,616 new cases, while between 9 and 15 March there were 4,566 new infections. The number for this week is 44% higher than for the previous week," the director of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, said.

The current 14-day incidence rate is 273.5 per 100,000 people, the lowest being recorded in Virovitica-Podravina County and the highest in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, where it is 759.9.

Croatia has the eighth lowest incidence rate in the European Union, after Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

In the last 24 hours, Croatia recorded 150 new coronavirus cases and 13 related deaths, including the death of a 60-year-old person who did not have any underlying medical conditions. All the other people who died had comorbidities and their average age was 77.6 years.

ZAGREB, 22 March, 2021 - A total of 150 new coronavirus cases and 13 related deaths have been registered in Croatia in the last 24 hours, the national COVID-19 response team said on Monday.

The number of active cases currently stands at 6,280, of whom 1,033 infected people are receiving hospital treatment, including 95 placed on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first cases was confirmed in the country, 257,789 infected people have been registered, of whom 5,786 have died and 245,723 have recovered, including 779 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 21,879 people are in self-isolation. To date, 1,477,537 people have been tested for the novel virus, including 2,521 in the last 24 hours.

March the 22nd, 2021 - As the coronavirus pandemic rages on and an increase in the infection rate in one Croatian county has been duly noted, Primorje-Gorski Kotar schools, at least the majority of them, have closed their doors today.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian county of Primorje-Gorski Kotar currently has the most active cases of infection in all of the country. Due to the upward trend in the number of infected individuals in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County - the local civil protection headquarters had to tighten its approach to combating the pandemic. Today, most Primorje-Gorski Kotar schools will remain closed.

For more than 120 days, this Croatian county has been recording more than 200 newly infected people per day. The number of active cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection exceeded 1,800, and most of those infected are among the local working population - 60 percent of them, and 16 percent of them are local school children, HRT reported.

Mladen Sculac from the Civil Protection Headquarters of the aforementioned county says that they expect that the new measures that come into force today will bring good results.

"Restrictions on classes for students from the 4th to 8th grade of primary school and for secondary schools will come into force, while students from 1st to 4th grade will continue to have their classes live. A proposal was made to the National Civil Protection Headquarters to limit the number of employees at any one time in the workplace or to introduce shift work. We expect that these measures will show good results,'' he said, adding that if these measures don't provide the desired results, then measures will need to be tightened.

"We hope that our citizens and employers will be disciplined in adhering to these measures," said Sculac, adding that the closure of cafe terraces will also happen if these measures aren't properly respected.

The intensified supervision of the operation of such catering facilities is also expected, and the closing of terraces will follow if the measures are violated. The Primorje-Gorski Kotar Police Department inspected 1,274 catering facilities, found 20 people violating self-isolation and issued 9 misdemeanor notices, the State Inspectorate intervened 30 times, and the Civil Protection Office carried out 180 inspections of the current epidemiological measures, reported HRT.

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March the 22nd, 2021 - The Croatian Chamber of Commerce has decided to continue to waive HGK membership fees for Croatian entities as the global coronavirus pandemic rages on.

Mandatory fees paid to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce have been a burning topic of irritation for Croatian companies for many years now, long preceding the coronavirus pandemic which has caused tremendous issues for the income of companies, particularly those who have had their ability to work limited or banned. 

Many Croatian enterprise owners have campaigned throughout the years for the total abolition of HGK membership fees, with some claiming that the institution is useless and does little to nothing to actually help them in any way.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen economic measures introduced by the government to try to preserve jobs and keep the heads of negatively affected companies above water. With various payments, including contributions, being written off for the time being, HGK membership fees were always due to be next in line and the continuation of the temporart abolition of membership fee payments is set to continue.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, at the ninth session of the Assembly of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, a decision was made to continue with the measure of the temporary abolition of the obligation to pay mandatory HGK membership fees for entities/activities whose work remains banned or in some way limited by the country's current epidemiological measures.

Given that the measures to control the infection will continue to be applied in this form until March the 31th, 2021, the Assembly voted to propose to continue, at least for that period, with the abolition of the obligation to pay HGK membership fees for Croatian companies whose operations have been forced to be limited.

It's worth noting that the decision of the Assembly of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce to temporarily (from January the 1st to March the 31st, 2021) abolish the obligation to pay HGK membership fees for members of the Chamber also refers to those companies based/headquartered in the areas affected by December 2020's Petrinja earthquake, and who were prevented from doing business due to those circumstances.

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