ZAGREB, 18 May (Hina) - In the last 24 hours of 8,004 tests taken for coronavirus in Croatia, six percent, that is 491, have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Tuesday.

The COVID-related death toll has risen by 27 to 7,765.

Currently, there are 4,871 active cases of the infection with this novel virus, and of them 1,566 are hospitalised patients, including 166 placed on ventilators.

Since the first registered case of the infection on 25 February 2020 in the country, Croatia has conducted more than 1.93 million tests.

As many as 350,997 have been diagnosed with this infection, and of them 338,361 have recovered including 886 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, Croatia has administered about 1.37 million doses of COVID vaccines. A total of 1,052,032 people have been given at least a one dose of the vaccine, and 317,937 have been inoculated with both shots of the two-dose vaccine.

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

 ZAGREB, 16 May, 2021 - The head of Zagreb's "Dr. Fran Mihaljević" Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić, believes that epidemiological restrictions will be relaxed and that gatherings with a larger number of people will probably be allowed but stresses the importance of vaccinating as many people as possible.

The number of new infections has dropped over the past week at a rate of almost 40%, the number of hospitalisations and patients on ventilators has been falling as well, but the clinical symptoms of the hospitalised patients are still rather serious, Markotić said in an interview with Croatian Television on Saturday.

"We must take care not to destroy the current positive trends, but I believe that epidemiological restrictions will gradually be relaxed," she said.

She noted that a fourth wave of the epidemic was possible in the autumn, noting that among those who were being hospitalised were also young and middle-aged people, between 50 and 60 years old.

Asked if she believed that Croatia would achieve the plan of having 55% of the adult population vaccinated by the end of June, Markotić said that the vaccination trends were excellent.

"We all sincerely hope that we will manage to reach that percentage. That also depends on the health system, which is doing its best to help step up the vaccination process," she said.

She also commented on the need for an additional campaign to encourage people who are still undecided about whether to get vaccinated or are waiting for the autumn to do it.

"It is already clear that the vaccine provides protection for a period of up to six months, or up to a year. To wait for the autumn means to expose yourself and people close to you to the risk of infection, even if it is only a less serious form of the disease. Even mild cases of the disease have serious side effects, not to mention the possibility of returning to a normal life. The tourist season is ahead, we should not allow a repeat of last year and the tourist season ending as early as 15 August. How we will do this year is up to us," Markotić said, calling on all to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Asked when the pandemic could end, Markotić said that epidemiologists expected it to be put under control by next spring on the condition a large share of the world population gets vaccinated.

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

ZAGREB, 16 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 480 coronavirus cases and 21 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Sunday.

There are 6,232 active cases and 1,675 hospitalised patients, including 181 on ventilators, while 20,160 people are self-isolating.

To date 350,390 people have been registered as infected, the death toll is 7,708 and 336,450 people have recovered, including 1,113 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,927,262 people have been tested for the virus, including 6,946 in the past 24 hours, and 1,346,991 vaccines have been administered, with 1,039,233 people receiving the first shot and 307,758 both.

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

ZAGREB, 15 May 2021 - The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in Croatia has surpassed one million today, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković tweeted on Friday, calling on all citizens to be vaccinated so that the pandemic could end.

He thanked healthcare workers, the Croatian Institute of Public Health, the Health Ministry and all services "who are working daily on the implementation of the vaccination plan," he said.

"I call on everyone to be vaccinated as it's the safest and fastest way to end the pandemic," he added.

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

ZAGREB, 15 May 2021 - In the past 24 hours 826 coronavirus cases and 23 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

There are 6,886 active cases and 1,684 hospitalised patients, including 185 on ventilators, while 21,468 people are self-isolating.

To date 349,910 people have been registered as infected, the death toll is 7,687 and 335,337 people have recovered, including 1,131 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,920,316 people have been tested for the virus, including 7,322 in the past 24 hours, and 1,310,456 vaccines have been administered, with 1,009,609 people receiving the first shot (30% of the adult population) and 300,847 both.

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

ZAGREB, 14 May, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, of 6,587 tests performed for coronavirus, 926, that is 14%, have returned positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Friday.

In the last 24 hours there have been 41 more deaths linked to COVID-19, bringing the COVID-related death toll to 7,664.

There are currently 7,214 active cases of  whom 1,752 infected patients are receiving hospital treatment, including 207 patients placed on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia's health authorities confirmed the first registered case of the infection with the novel virus, more than 1.91 million tests have been conducted.

As many as 334,206 patients have recovered to date, including 1,537 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Currently 21,530 people are self isolating.

More than 1.26 million vaccine doses against COVID have been administered in Croatia since the beginning of this year. Over 980,000 people have been given at least one shot, and more than 288,000 have received both shots of the two-dose vaccine.

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

ZAGREB, 13 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 1,064 coronavirus cases and 34 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

The number of active cases stands at 7,866, including 1,837 hospitalised patients, 202 of whom are on ventilators.

To date Croatia has registered 348,158 coronavirus cases and the death toll stands at 7,623.

A total of 1,906,407 people have been tested to date, including 7,501 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 332,669 people have recovered, including 1,281 in the past 24 hours.

Currently 23,316 people are in self-isolation.

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

May 12, 2021 -  The way things are going, eternal life might be a reality for this Croatian immortal: meet Joža Manolić, second Croatian Prime Minister and the Yugoslavian secret agent that defeated COVID-19 in his 102nd year of life.

With corona spreading through the world like butter on bread, everyone needs to be careful, but especially people who are old and/or have chronic diseases.

So when someone close to 100 survives the infection, it's a news story worthy of international attention.

And, a similar case most recently happened in Croatia. As Index.hr reports, one man, who turned 101 two months ago was fighting with the virus for three weeks. He was never hospitalized but was under the doctor's close surveillance in his home until he finally recovered. And the story spread throughout Croatia as an amazing fight, but realistically, among Croatians, the winner of this epic battle of man vs. virus was known all along. Even when it seems the virus was taking the lead at one point, there was nothing to do but watch with a smug look and think, „He'll bounce back, that virus walked into Pfizer/AstraZeneca/Johnson&Johnson/Moderna cocktail embodied naturally". Despite being the priority for vaccination by all health standards, this corona patient didn't even took the vaccine because, as he said to the press „nobody invited him, and he was waiting for his turn“.

The victorious patient's name is Joža Manolić, and he is in Croatia what Rip Thorn is in the US (only Manolić is much cooler, sorry Rip).  

If you are a paranoid doomsday awaiter, watching the Doomsday clock in panic, which, at the time of writing this article, showed 100 seconds until midnight, Croatians would say you are crazy. As long as Joža Manolić is alive, the world will keep spinning. The ultimate proof corona is bad, but not the end of us. 

screenshot / NewsBar

Croatian James Bond but without replacement actors every few movies

Born on March 22, 1920, Joža Manolić isn't only the person that has seen it all; he has done it all! 

He served as the second Croatian Prime Minister from August 24, 1990, to July 17, 1991, and is one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), but before that, he had an impressive carrier in the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.

When he turned 18, he joined the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and was accepted into the Croatian Communist Party when he was 19. From then, among other things, he was appointed Secretary of the Municipal Committee of SKOJ for Nova Gradiška and was named a member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party in 1940. When WW2 broke out, he was arrested by Ustasha authorities (of the Independent State of Croatia, an ally of Hitler and Mussolini) for spreading communist propaganda in Nova Gradiška. When released from captivity, he moved to Zagreb, where he started cooperating with Yugoslav Partisans and later moved to the partisan-controlled territory. Moving up in the ranks of communist circles, Manolić broke through the very top of the Yugoslav intelligence service. Firstly in OZNA, notorious for eliminating political opponents, and later to UDBA, which was less drastic but still pretty nasty secret service you didn't want to mess with.

The go-to guy to make history, the Croatian James Bond portrayed by only one man, bright and cool. 

There is an expression for the fans of Hajduk Footbal Club that „Hajduk lives forever“ (Hajduk živi vječno). This may be true, but as their game performance shows, it's hard to be as successful in 110 years as Joža Manolić is in 101 years.  

What is even more interesting, Joža Manolić was born in 1920, three months before the conclusion of the Spanish Flu pandemic, and his 100th birthday he celebrated in Zagreb, believe it or not, happened the same day, Zagreb was hit with a powerful 5.5 Richter scale earthquake. With two wars, eight epidemics, and several financial crises survived, Manolić is really the guy you want to be next to regardless of what horrible, death-guaranteed menace is heading your way.

 Immortality recipe: healthy diet and… being a secret agent?

When famous Croatian satirist and editor of the hilarious Newsbar site, Borna Sor (who is not a stranger to TCN) interviewed Manolić in 2016, he asked „the then young 96-year-old Manolić“ how is it possible that he is still alive?

„Every secret agent either lives a long life or is killed ahead of schedule“, said Manolić in good humor.

As Jutarnji list reported, Manolić's DNA was even sequenced to scientifically research the secret of his long life in 2018. The Korean Biotechnology company doesn't really have a precise explanation of his long life, but Manolić has his entire genome on a memory stick, joining other famous people with such an honor, including Nobel prize winner James Watson, actress Glenn Close, TV host Larry King, rock star Ozzy Osbourn and several more. He is the oldest living owner of a driver's license (although he didn't extend it when he turned 100), an active driver, whose clean traffic record can put to shame much younger people causing havoc on the road, including controversial Croatian entrepreneur Tomo Horvatinčić. He was married twice, last time when he was 97 to a then-60year-old woman with whom he was a decade in a relationship. Today he is sadly a widow, outliving both of his wives.

Whether it's any famous Croatian personality or internationally recognized as Eddie Van Halen, Hugh Heffner, or Prince Phillip, there isn't a celebrity death in the country that isn't acknowledged with „Joža Manolić outlived him/her“. As you can imagine, there is an entire group on Facebook dedicated to jokes such as „We need to care for the environment to leave a nicer world to Joža Manolić“, or „Joža Manolić being in Eden before God“.

God explaining to Adam and Eve that he found Joža Manolić when he arrived © Joža Manolić je nadživio

Fascinating and publicly active, the author of this text really wanted to use the news of Manolić defeating corona to do an interview with him for TCN.

„Don't contact him for the love of god! He is over a hundred years old and just got over corona“, said my editor Iva Tatić pleading that I continue to bother diplomats and other people instead of one of the biggest living legends Croatia has ever known.

Well, maybe after he gets some rest from corona, there will be a chance for an interview.

Frankly, I don't worry Joža Manolić is going anywhere, but the question is will I live long enough to do the interview with this pristine gentleman that, while Zagreb has tons of fountains, kept the fountain of youth in his backyard.  

Learn more about history and politics in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about legends of Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 12 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 1,471 coronavirus cases and 40 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

To date 1,898,906 people have been tested for the virus, including 8,773 in the past 24 hours.

The number of active cases is 8,117, including 1,892 hospitalised patients, 215 of whom are on ventilators, while 21,830 people are self-isolating.

To date Croatia has registered 347,094 coronavirus cases and the death toll stands at 7,589, while 331,388 people have recovered from COVID-19, including 1,059 in the past 24 hours.

To date 1,186,581 vaccines have been administered, with 919,139 people receiving the first and 267,442 both doses.

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

ZAGREB, 11 May, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 876 coronavirus cases and 46 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Tuesday.

The number of active cases is 7,745 and includes 1,928 hospitalised patients, 217 of whom are on ventilators, while 21,766 people are self-isolating.

To date 1,890,133 people have been tested for the virus, including 8,839 in the past 24 hours, 345,623 have been infected, 7,549 have died, and 330,329 have recovered from COVID-19, including 1,336 in the past 24 hours.

Over one million vaccine doses administered

To date 1,124,319 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 894,881 people receiving the first and 259,438 both doses.

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