ZAGREB, July 31, 2020 - A total of 67 new coronavirus cases and one death have been reported in Croatia in the last 24 hours.

"In the last 24 hours, 67 new cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2 have been recorded, bringing the total number of active cases to 727," the national coronavirus crisis response team said on Friday.

Among them, 125 infected people are receiving hospital treatment and six of them are on ventilators.

One person has died in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 145.

Since February 25, when the first case was registered in Croatia, 5,139 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, 4,267 have recovered, and 2,746 are currently in self-isolation.

To date, 118,955 have been tested, including 1,750 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, July 30, 2020 - There have been 78 newly diagnosed infections with COVID-19 in Croatia in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Vili Beros told the government on Thursday.

Today, the 157th day since Croatia confirmed its first case of the infection with coronavirus, there have been 4,993 cases so far. Currently, 753 of them are active, including 132 who are receiving hospital treatment. Eight are on ventilators, he said.

In the last week, there have been 464 new cases, and 16 persons have died due to infection-related complications, Beros said.

14-day cumulative incidence rate: 25.4 cases per 100, 000 inhabitants

The 14-day cumulative incidence rate of COVID-19 is 25.4 per 100, 000 inhabitants, he added.

In the healthcare system, there have been 44 employees diagnosed with the infection over the last seven days.

ZAGREB, July 29, 2020 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman confirmed on Wednesday that four female employees at the ministry had coronavirus, saying he was tested before meeting his Slovenian counterpart yesterday and that he was negative.

Speaking to the press, he told that two ministry staff were positive on Saturday and that now they were four. "We have disinfected the whole ministry and everyone who was in close contact with those infected is self-isolating... We are in touch with epidemiologists, following their directions."

The minister said he had not been in contact with the four staffers. He said he was tested yesterday morning and that he was negative.

I called the Slovenian foreign minister, with whom I met yesterday, when I went to get tested, and I also told him the results so as to avoid any doubts, he added.

As for the source of the infection in the ministry, Grlic Radman said a female employee might have contracted the virus at a place where there were a number of people.

SDP MP says Foreign Ministry new coronavirus hotspot

Earlier on Wednesday MP Domagoj Hajdukovic of the Social Democratic Party said that the Foreign Ministry was a new coronavirus hotspot, with six persons infected.

"According to my information, we have a new infection hotspot, the ministry. The first case was recorded at the end of last week in the ministry's secretariat. New infections have been confirmed today, six in all," he said in parliament.

Hajdukovic said quite a few people were ordered to self-isolate and asked Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, who was in the chamber, if he had been in contact with them and if he was tested.

MP speculates that Bosnia may have been source of infection for ministry employees

As for a possible source of infection, he said "many people from the ministry were helping out" with the vote in Croatia's July 5 parliamentary election in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Did the infection come from there? Were there safety breaches? Were those people tested and kept in self-isolation when they came back?"

ZAGREB, July 29, 2020 - Of 1,632 tests for COVID-19 performed in Croatia in the last 24 hours, 71 have returned positive, and currently there are 754 active cases of the infection in the country, according to the coronavirus tracker presented on Wednesday by the national COVID-19 crisis management team.

Presenting the data, Health Minister Vili Beros said that a declining trajectory of active cases was noticeable since last week.

In the last 24 hours, a man aged 79 who had underlining health conditions, died due to infection-related complications in the Osijek hospital. Since the outbreak of the disease, 141 people have died due to COVID-19 complications.

Currently there are 132 coronavirus patients in hospitals, and eight of them are placed on ventilators.

The average age of infected persons is 46.9 years.

Since 25 February when Croatia reported its first confirmed case of the infection with the virus, 115,722 tests have been taken, and 4,993 have returned positive. The percentage of positive cases is 4.32% 

ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 - There have been 41 newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients in Croatia in the last 24 hours, and the COVID-19 tracker shows that there are 749 active cases in the country, the national COVID-19 crisis response team reported on Tuesday.

One more person has died due to the complications caused by the coronavirus infection, bringing the death toll to 140.

There are 133 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, including nine placed on ventilators.

Since 25 February when Croatia reported its first confirmed case of the infection with the virus, 4,923 people have tested positive, and of them, 4,034 have recovered fully.

To date, 114,090 tests have been performed, including 1,256 in the last 24 hours.

As many as 2,915 people are self-isolating.

ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 - The ombudsman for persons with disabilities said on Tuesday that in the "new normal" care home resents should be allowed freedom of movement and that it was inhumane to expect them to live in self-isolation until further notice.

Under Croatian Institute of Public Health directions in force since mid-March, all residents are banned from leaving care home premises, Anka Slonjsak said in a press release.

Under the directions, the entire burden of preventing the spread of coronavirus has been imposed solely on care home residents, she added.

Slonjsak said she had been warning the authorities since May about multiple violations of care home residents' human rights. She said they were complaining in public that the restriction of free movement over the past four months deprived them of a fundamental human right, affecting their mental and physical well-being.

Slonjsak said care home staff, when they were not at work, went to potentially risky places without restriction or control.

She asked why the measures being applied to staff, such as measuring their temperature when they came to work, periodic testing, physical distancing and protective gear, could not be applied to residents who requested it.

Slonjsak said epidemiologists must find solutions to allow residents freedom of movement outside the home.

Although the epidemiological situation is a big challenge and responsibility for the authorities, the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms must not be ruled out without considering less aggravating possibilities for achieving the same goal, she said.

ZAGREB, July 28, 2020 - In the autumn all students will go to school and only schools and classes in which there is a coronavirus outbreak will be closed, Jutarnji List daily said on Tuesday.

The new minister of education and science, Radovan Fuchs, has begun his term with intensive preparations for organising teaching in schools and at faculties as of this autumn, the paper said.

Several consultations with the stakeholders in the system were held this past weekend and this week Fuchs plans to include as many people as possible in the talks on the subject, such as representatives of the education system, central logistical computer networks, epidemiologists, the national COVID response team, and unions.

"The priority is the return of all pupils and students to classrooms as of the new school and academic year. Naturally, everything depends on the epidemiological situation which no one can predict at the moment, but we absolutely want everyone to be in school as much as possible, with all safety measures in place," the ministry said on a point Fuchs defined as key, a point he said should be worked out in as much detail as possible by the start of the school year.

Fuchs is not in favour of a lockdown, so as of this autumn protection measures could be enforced locally, the daily said. For example, if there is a virus outbreak in a certain area, not all schools in the country would be closed, only a class, school, town or county would self-isolate, depending on epidemiologists' assessment.

In that case, with measures applying to such a small number of students, central IT centres would be consulted to organise distance teaching, the paper said.

ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - In the last 24 hours there have been 24 new cases of infection with coronavirus in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis response team said on Monday.

There are now 807 active cases in the country, of whom 138 are being treated in hospitals, including nine on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, three people previously diagnosed with this infectious disease have died, thus bringing the death toll to 139.

Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Croatia on 25 February, a total of 4,881 people have been diagnosed with this disease, and 3,936 have recovered.

Currently, there are 3,112 people who are self-isolating at home.

To date, 112,834 tests have been conducted, including 831 in the last 24 hours.

ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - The government has responded to President Zoran Milanovic's statement that the national coronavirus crisis response team is a "paraconstitutional" body, saying that the decisions by the team are not constitutionally questionable and that it is odd that he wants the new virus to be accepted like tooth decay.

"It is odd that the President of the Republic wants us to accept the coronavirus like tooth decay while at the same time calling for the declaration of a state of emergency, i.e. activation of Article 17 of the Constitution. The decisions made by the national coronavirus crisis response team are not constitutionally questionable or political. They are made based on guidance from medical professionals and their primary aim is to protect the lives and health of our citizens," the N1 television channel published the government's response on Sunday evening after President Zoran Milanovic's appearance in its current affairs programme earlier in the day.

The government recalled that the legal basis for the crisis response team's decisions was the law on the protection of the population from contagious diseases, the civil protection law and Article 16 of the Constitution.

The restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the virus and protect human life were proportionate and well balanced, which is also in accordance with the Constitution, the government said.

"The team will continue to do their work responsibly and efficiently and prepare new measures to contain the spread of the infection, while further monitoring the development of the epidemiological situation," the government said in its response.

N1 said that the Constitutional Court declined to comment on Milanovic's statement.

In the interview, Milanovic said that war was not the only state of emergency. "Is the situation we are now living in normal and usual? Of course, it is not. War is not the only state of emergency. This is a natural and economic disaster and it is on this ground that we are having our rights restricted. At first, they are absolute, but you cannot live in a community where your rights are absolute and your obligations non-existent," the president said.

He also commented on the role of the national coronavirus crisis response team. "It is not normal that a group of people who have not been elected by the people should decide how many people are allowed to attend a wedding celebration. I am in favour of taking an initial decision by a two-thirds majority. The government needs a power of attorney for how many people can attend a wedding celebration and I would give it to it if I could."

ZAGREB, July 26, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours Croatia has recorded 65 new coronavirus cases, bringing the number of active cases up to 855, and three persons have died, the national COVID-19 response team said on Sunday.

Currently, 142 patients are hospitalised, including nine on ventilators, and 3,271 persons are in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the new virus was first reported in Croatia, there have been 4,857 cases, 136 persons have died and 3,866 recovered.

To date, 112,003 persons have been tested, including 1,489 over the past 24 hours.