ZAGREB, 9 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, 9,987 coronavirus tests have been performed in Croatia and of them, 941 (9.4%) have returned positive, while the COVID-19-related death toll has risen by 10 to 8,405, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

There are currently 5,335 active cases and, among them, 554 are receiving hospital treatment, including 58 patients on ventilators.

Since its first registered case of the coronavirus infection on 25 February 2020, Croatia has tested 2,628,116 people. The country has registered 380,904 positive cases and 367,164 recoveries, of which 605 in the past 24 hours.

So far, 43.13% of the total population, or 51.79% of adults, have been vaccinated. The share of the fully vaccinated adult population is 48.59%.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 6 Sept 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 184 coronavirus cases and five deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Monday.

Currently, 8,661 persons are self-isolating.

To date, 2,597,124 persons have been tested for the virus, including 3,942 in the past 24 hours.

Croatia has registered 378,022 coronavirus cases to date, including 8,375 deaths and 365,615 recoveries, of which 578 in the past 24 hours.

To date, 42.91% of the total population has been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 51.53% of adults, 48.31% of whom have completed vaccination.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has performed 9,989 coronavirus tests, and 8% of them, that is 798, have turned out to be positive, and 11 COVID patients have died, bringing the COVID-related death toll to 8,349, the national coronavirus crisis management team stated on Thursday.

Currently, there are 3,943 active cases of infection in the country, and of them, 450 are receiving hospital treatment, including 53 patients placed on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020 when Croatia reported its first registered COVID case, more than 2.56 million tests have been conducted, showing that 375,601 people have caught the virus. Of them, 363,309 have recovered to date.

Since the start of its vaccine rollout, Croatia has administered nearly 3.3 million vaccines, and 42.64% of the population, or 51.22 of the adult citizens, have been vaccinated.

To date, 1,619, 592  citizens,  that is 47.99% of the adult population, have fully been immunized.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 26 Aug 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 638 coronavirus cases and six COVID-related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

The number of active cases is 3,253 and there are 358 hospitalized patients, including 43 on ventilators, while 7,058 persons are self-isolating.

To date, 2,501,327 tests for the virus have been conducted, including 10,428 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 3,236,170 vaccine doses have been administered, with 42.09% of the population having been vaccinated, including 50.57% of adults.

One dose has been administered to 1,708,154 persons while 1,594,019 persons have been fully vaccinated -- 1,528,016 have received both doses and 66,003 have received the single-dose Janssen vaccine -- which is 47.25% of the adult population.

To date, Croatia has registered 371,623 coronavirus cases and 8,316 deaths, while 360,054 persons have recovered from COVID-19, including 330 in the past 24 hours.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

August 24, 2021 - Through an internal letter to its employees, KBC Osijek has made it clear to those not vaccinated that, should a patient become infected with COVID-19 and sue the hospital, they will ask those workers to pay compensation.

Zadarski.hr reports that the management of KBC Osijek sent a letter to employees warning them that in case of potential lawsuits of patients related to COVID-19, if the court decides in favor of the plaintiff, there is a possibility that compensation will be paid by an employee who was not vaccinated and infected the patient.

"If doctors or nurses are not vaccinated and the patient becomes infected with covid-19, then it can be demonstrated that not all the protection measures available to the health facility have been taken. If the hospital has to pay compensation, the same amount can be claimed from of an unvaccinated worker who infected a patient, since the hospital as an employer enabled vaccination”, the internal letter reads.

Namely, the letter was created after the first request for compensation was submitted, at the Zagreb Clinical Hospital, where the family of the deceased 84-year-old asked for a settlement with the hospital. As Jutarnji was the first to report, they believe that the deceased came to the hospital negative for covid, became ill, and eventually died. They demanded compensation of HRK 632,000 and paid attorney's fees, and the hospital refused the settlement because they claim that there is no evidence that she became infected in the hospital. But it is still unknown whether the family will file a lawsuit.

The director of KBC Osijek, Željko Zubčić, said that the notification sent to hospital employees was not a kind of pressure on those who were not vaccinated to do so, but their obligation to inform employees about potential scenarios and consequences of possible lawsuits.

''Considering that the first compensation claim was filed against the hospital in Croatia, we once again warned our employees about responsible behavior but also informed them about what is happening, and about the potential risks if such a situation occurs'', said Zubčić.

KBC Osijek, he notes, started vaccinating employees on December 27, 2020, and provided vaccines for all who want to be vaccinated, as well as protective equipment for working with patients, all for the purpose of maximum protection of both employees and patients.

''We believe that it is OK to inform employees that the hospital has the right to claim possible damages from employees, of course, if it is proven in court that it did not comply with protection measures and thus caused damage to the employer'', said the director Zubčić and added that KBC Osijek has received no such lawsuit.

However, he states that they have one or two cases of claiming documentation from law firms, which means a lawsuit may be prepared.

Do other hospitals follow?

''Of course, this also needs to be proven because it can happen that patients come with a negative PCR test, but they can be incubated, which means they can bring coronavirus to the KBC because the incubation can last two days, but also ten to 14 days. This is all proven later. We believe that such situations will be rare, but we must warn our employees about them'', concluded Zubčić.

Krešimir Luetić, president of the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK), states that they have clearly advocated for the vaccination of all doctors and all health professionals from the beginning.

''On July 21, the Executive Board of the Croatian Medical Chamber adopted a conclusion that, due to the unsatisfactory level of vaccination, it considers the introduction of mandatory vaccination of employees in Croatian health care to be justified. HLK believes that the state health administration should take responsibility and make a decision on mandatory vaccination of health workers'', says Luetic and adds that calculating, not making decisions, and shifting responsibility to lower levels is not a successful way to fight coronavirus, nor will vaccination of all health professionals.

''The responsibility of health professionals is twofold. We are not only responsible for our own health, but also for the health of all our patients'', Luetić points out, and Mario Gazić, the president of the Chamber of Nurses, agrees with him.

''Yesterday we once again sent a letter calling for vaccination. Among healthcare professionals, realistically, this should not be a topic of discussion at all. Therefore, I do not consider the letter from KBC Osijek to be at all unusual or inadequate''.

Although KBC Osijek was the first to present this notice to the employees, this does not mean that other hospitals will not be guided by it.

Davor Vagić, director of KBC Sestre milosrdnice, says that he supports his colleague from Osijek because everyone in health care should be vaccinated, except those who, for objective reasons, are not allowed to receive the vaccine.

''The legal services of hospitals should give an answer to this question, and doctors and nurses know that they are doing a job in which they have to protect themselves and patients'', Vagić points out.

The assistant director of KBC Zagreb, Milivoj Novak, also shares this opinion.

''It is a question for the legal service, but everyone should bear some kind of responsibility. It is clear that vaccinated people can sometimes transmit the disease, but then we know that we gave our best and used all currently available methods of protection'', concludes Novak.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centers across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

May 21, 2021 - The fight against COVID-19 continues before the start of the season, and it is time for Split-Dalmatia County tourism workers' vaccination. 

As reported by hrturizam.hr, the Split-Dalmatia County Institute of Public Health invites all tourism workers who have been vaccinated with the first dose of vaccine on May 8 and 15 to come for vaccination on June 5, by the hour they were ordered for their first time.

It is important to note that a gap is required between two doses of vaccine three to six weeks so that all employees who received the first dose of vaccine in the above terms can come for the second dose of the vaccine.

All tourism staff who did not receive the first dose of vaccine can also come that day at the Spaladium Arena from 13:00 to 14:00.

“Vaccination of tourism workers is of great importance for achieving the health security of the destination. This is the most challenging tourist year so far and the responsibility for the achieved results is on each individual, so we invite all tourism workers to be part of the joint creation of the image of Split as a safe tourist destination," said Alijana Vukšić, director of the Split Tourist Board.

According to koronavirus.hr, 25.7% of the total population of Split-Dalmatia county has received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 7.8% have received both doses as of May 20th.

Apart from the tourism workers, all citizens or residents of Croatia can be vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccines are not intended for children under 16 or 18 years of age, and the vaccination age depends on the type of vaccine. However, due to the higher risk of developing more severe forms of COVID-19 disease, preference is given to people with chronic diseases and the elderly. These include people with respiratory, cardiovascular, malignant, kidney diseases, diabetes, and immunodeficiencies. 

You can apply for vaccination by reporting to your family doctor, via the website cijepise.zdravlje.hr, by calling the toll-free number 0800 0011, and through county public health institutes.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border, and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of testing centers and vaccination points up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 20 May 2021 - As of today, every third adult in Croatia has been vaccinated against COVID-19, the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, 19 May, 43,890 doses of the vaccine were used, and the number of persons that have received at least one dose reached 1,109,161, which is 27% of the population or 33% of the adult population, while 341,008 persons have received both doses.

According to data from the eCijepih platform, as of 20 May, every third adult in Croatia has been vaccinated, which is a big step forward compared to early May, when on 1 May every fifth adult citizen of Croatia had been vaccinated, the HZJZ said.

First dose vaccine coverage is highest in Zagreb, 31% of the total population or 37.6% of the adult population, and second dose vaccine coverage is highest in Sisak-Moslavina County, 12% of the population or 14.4% of adults.

"These are encouraging data that give us reason for optimism when it comes to meeting the goal of vaccinating over a half of Croatia's adult population by the end of June. Vaccination is going according to plan, the epidemiological situation is better than in previous weeks and this is certainly good news, especially in the context of the upcoming tourist season," said HZJZ deputy director Ivana Pavić Šimetin.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centres up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and choose your preferred language.

February 9, 2021 – In a Croatian media TV interview, epidemiologist of the Croatian Institute of Public Health Bernard Kaić yesterday said the plan to vaccinate half of the population by the summer will be delayed. He predicted that if Croatia continues vaccination at its current rate, the goal would not be reached until autumn, possibly late autumn

Epidemiologist of the Croatian Institute of Public Health Bernard Kaić, speaking to Croatian media RTL, told them the plan to vaccinate half of the population by the summer will be delayed. The epidemiologist predicted that if Croatia continues vaccination at its current rate, the goal of vaccinating half of the population within the country will not be completed until autumn, possibly late autumn.

"I can't say (by) exactly how much,” he told RTL, regarding how much delay will occur, “because we still don't know how many vaccines we'll get in March. And (how much) after March we (still) have no idea.”

“If this pace continues, it would take four million doses to vaccinate half the population. We won't achieve that until autumn for sure, and it’s late autumn,” the epidemiologist said.

According to an article in Index, the epidemiologist said that, as things currently stand, there will be three vaccines used in Croatia - AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech. They will be used concurrently, with vaccinations from all three available in Croatia at the same time.

When asked which vaccine he would choose to be vaccinated with, the epidemiologist answered that he did not know and that he was glad that he did not have the opportunity to choose. "There was only one offered so I got vaccinated,” said the epidemiologist. “It would be really hard to decide."

When asked why some states have given up vaccinating those over the age of 65 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the epidemiologist explained that in currently available results from clinical studies the messenger RNA vaccine had proven to be somewhat more effective in preventing mild forms of Coronavirus than the AstraZeneca vaccine. Some of the vaccines work in different ways. However, the epidemiologist ultimately said that it was expected the AstraZeneca vaccine would prove to be effective, it was just that this had not yet been proven statistically.

RTL screenshot

Later in the interview, the epidemiologist was asked “Due to skepticism towards AstraZeneca, many associations in (Croatia's) border areas plan to take pensioners to Serbia for vaccination. How smart is it to accept such an arrangement?”

The epidemiologist replied; “My only fear is that such organized trips do not turn into corona-trips so that people do not get infected on the way back and forth and do themselves harm. I would wait.”

The three vaccines for which Croatia is currently expecting deliveries are now not the only vaccines available. Speaking in a discussion on the same evening on another Croatian media outlet, HRT, Zlatko Trobonjača, an immunologist from the Rijeka Clinical Hospital, spoke about the Russian vaccine.

"Our country is obviously following the EU and its decisions,” he said. “The EU has entered into talks with Russia. It can be expected that these talks will continue. It is a quality vaccine, it provides high protection.”

"As for the quality of the vaccine, we can see that it is not harmful and it could be used in our country. The EU is oriented towards Western companies. And now, they (the companies) did not stick to the agreement," Trobonjača said, adding that he would be vaccinated with the first vaccine that was made available to him.

January 20, 2021 - Nearly 30% of KBC Split employees have received the COVID-19 vaccine, which is an outstanding response. 

Dalmatinski Portal reports that Dr. Ante Punda, President of the Expert Council of KBC Split, presented how many hospital employees were vaccinated against COVID-19. 

"We had our regular session today, and I can state with satisfaction that all members have been vaccinated, apart from the ones who recently recovered from Covid. They will be vaccinated in the coming period. I thank the ministry and the media for the promotion. KBC is aware of the responsibility; to think of others, we have to think of ourselves.

Thanks to our epidemiological service that conducts vaccination, the response of employees is high. You have seen that epidemiological measures have yielded results. If we are responsible, we will reach the goal of having fewer cases. In three weeks, we vaccinated 1,082 employees, 435 doctors, and 318 nurses; the rest is support staff, our technicians, and laboratory technicians. Now comes the second phase of vaccination. That's about 28.5 percent. All KBC employees are invited. I think that’s a satisfactory figure for the first three weeks. We made the most of the vaccine. That is a respectable figure. We expect that the number of vaccinated will increase as more vaccine doses arrive," said Dr. Punda.

The director of KBC Split, Julija Meštrović, is delighted with the number of vaccinated employees.

"You know how it was said that interest in vaccination at this hospital was minimal. All the vaccine was used. First, those who work in the Covid center were vaccinated. It can't get any better than this. It was done quickly. The response is the best possible. Everyone we could vaccinate was vaccinated. Motivation is very high. The current situation shows this. I don’t know if some don’t want to get vaccinated. What has been achieved is a truly remarkable result. The situation in Croatia is excellent; we must continue to adhere to ongoing measures. The number of hospitalized is decreasing, and because of that, it is becoming easier to work. We have the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to other patients, which is very good," said Dr. Meštrović.

Illustration by Little Shiva

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