ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,529 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 46 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

There are 2,227 COVID patients in hospital, 221 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the start of the epidemic, 318,837 people have contracted coronavirus, 6,784 of them have died, while 295,885 have recovered, including 2,431 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 34,660 people in self-isolation, and the number of active cases in Croatia stands at 16,168.

To date, 1,743,017 people have been tested, 8,783 of whom over the past 24 hours.

As at 22 April, 746,878 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Croatia, and 593,972 people have been vaccinated, with 438,706 people receiving the first dose and 152,906 receiving both doses. For 2,360 people there is no data on how many doses they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 22 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,885 new cases of the coronavirus infection, and there were 46 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

There are 2,229 COVID patients in hospitals, including 226 on ventilators.

Over the past 24 hours, 46 people have died, bringing the death toll to 6,738 since the start of the epidemic.

There are 16,116 active cases in Croatia today, and 33,940 people are in self-isolation.

To date, 1,734,234 people have been tested, including 10,537 people tested over the past 24 hours.

Since the start of the epidemic in Croatia, a total of 316,308 people have contracted coronavirus, and 293,454 of them have recovered, 2,103 recovered in the past 24 hours.

As at 21 April, 726,315 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Croatia, and 578,273 people have been vaccinated, with 427,919 people receiving the first dose and 148,042 receiving both doses. For 2,312 people there is no data on how many doses they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - The U.S. State Department has added about 100 countries this week to its "Level Four: Do Not Travel" advisory list, putting Croatia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Mexico, Germany and others on the list, citing a "very high level of COVID-19," Reuters reported.

On Monday, the State Department said it would boost the number of countries receiving its highest advisory rating to about 80% of countries worldwide.

Before Tuesday, the State Department listed 34 out of about 200 countries as "Do Not Travel." The State Department now lists about 131 countries at Level Four, says Reuters.

The State Department said Monday the move "reflects an adjustment in the State Department's Travel Advisory system to rely more on (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's) existing epidemiological assessments."

Other countries in the "Do Not Travel" list include Finland, Egypt, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Some countries like China and Japan remain at "Level 3: Reconsider Travel."

Most Americans already had been prevented from traveling to much of Europe because of COVID-19 restrictions. Washington has barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa, Reuters says.

On Tuesday, the United States extended by another 30 days restrictions barring non-essential travel at its Canadian and Mexican borders.

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ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 3,117 coronavirus cases and 49 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases is 15,380 and includes 2,201 hospitalised patients, 230 of whom are on ventilators, while 31,562 people are self-isolating.

To date 1.7 million people have been tested for the virus, including 10,523 in the past 24 hours.

Through 20 April 708,960 vaccine doses were administered, with 419,252 people receiving the first dose and 143,796 both. For 2,116 people there is no information on whether they received one or both shots.

To date Croatia has registered 313,523 coronavius cases and 6,692 deaths, while 291,351 patients have recovered, including 1,687 in the past 24 hours.

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ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 9,831 coronavirus tests have been performed in Croatia and of them 21.4%, that is 2,106, have turned out to be positive, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team stated on Tuesday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by 42 to 6,643.

Croatia has currently 13,999 active cases, including 2,198 patients who are receiving hospital treatment and of them 213 are placed on ventilators.

As many as 30,534 people are self-isolating.

Since the outbreak of the infection on 25 February last year, 1,713,174 people have been tested for the virus. So far Croatia has registered 310,306 coronavirus cases, and 289,664 recovered patients, including 1,877 in the past 24 hours.

Since the beginning of this year, 698,032 COVID vaccine doses have been administered under Croatia's vaccine rollout plan. The press release reads that until 19 April, 556,969 people have been given shots against this disease. As many as 413,812 people have received the first dose of the two-dose vaccine, and 141,063 have been inoculated with both doses.

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ZAGREB, 19 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 410 new coronavirus cases and 39 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Monday.

The number of active cases stands at 13,812 and includes 2,179 hospitalised patients, of whom 199 are on ventilators, while 30,644 people are self-isolating.

To date 1,703,343 people have been tested for the virus, including 2,728 in the past 24 hours.

So far Croatia has registered 308,200 coronavirus cases, 6,601 COVID-19 deaths and 287,787 recovered patients, including 2,227 in the past 24 hours.

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - Croatia can expect the delivery of 1.8 million Pfizer doses against coronavirus and the inoculation of 55% of the population against this infectious disease until 1 July, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

Representatives of the team said at a news conference that Croatia has registered a 32% weekly rise in new cases, and that the share of positive tests was 29.2% on Friday.

In terms of the incidence rate, Croatia  currently ranks 21st in the European Union and in the terms of the death rate, it ranks 17th, Croatia's chief epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak told the news conference.

"Pfizer has ramped up its delivery of vaccines for us. We Will have received a total of 1.805 million doses of this vaccine by the end of June," Capak said adding that he expected more than half of the population to get COVID shots before 1 July.

The head of the Zagreb-based Fran Mihaljević hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotić called for additional caution before people get vaccinated.

"It would be a pity to develop serious symptoms of this disease now when we can be vaccinated soon," she said.

She said that the British variant of the novel virus was currently dominant in the European Union.

Markotić said that her hospital has been full with patients for days and that she was particularly concerned with the difficult condition of patients aged between 25 and 40.

Health Minister Vili Beroš reassured the general public that there would be enough vaccines for everyone who wishes to be immunised against this infectious disease.

Beroš dismissed accusations from some media outlets and Opposition lawmakers that the Cuspis company, which is allegedly owned by a family friend, had been favoured by the Health Ministry in the task to design the Cijepise (Get Vaccinated) platform.

Beroš said that all data concerning this issue were available on the ministry's website.

Beroš went on to say that the company had been hired by the ministry for some other tasks before he became an assistant minster and before his ministerial term.

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OSTZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - Member of Parliament Zvonimir Troskot of the MOST party on Friday said that huge corruption risks and scandals are hiding under the guise of fight against COVID-19, warning of a new scandal regarding the Cijepise (Get vaccinated) application.

Yet another scandal is about to break regarding the Cijepise application whose design was awarded in a non-transparent way to a good friend of Health Minister Vili Beroš's, with details of the deal having been hidden for months, Troskot told a press conference in Parliament House.

"Huge corruption risks and scandals are being hidden under the guise of fighting against COVID," he said, recalling that MOST had requested that the procurement procedure for medical equipment should not be confidential.

There is an evident model where procurement is being segmented so it does not exceed the threshold of HRK 200,000 in order to avoid a public procurement procedure, said Troskot.

The Cijepise application is very important and should be helping citizens to get vaccinated yet instead people are being inoculated out of line, he said.

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 2,698 new coronavirus cases while 44 people have died as a consequence, the national COVID-19 response team said on Friday.

There are 16,053 active cases in the country, including 2,003 hospitalised patients, of whom 186 are on ventilators.

There are currently 31,195 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, there have been a total of 303,598 people infected with the virus and 6,486 people have died as a consequence.

A total of 281,059 people have recovered from the disease, including 1,908 in the past 24 hours.

To date a total of 1,683,651 people have been tested for the virus, including 9,233 in the past 24 hours.

As of 15 April a total of 643,834 doses of vaccines have been administered, inoculating 519,375 people. Of that number, 393,002 people have received the first dose and 124,459 have received both doses. For 1,914 people there is no data on which dose they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 15 April, 2021 - The head of the national COVID response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said on Thursday that the epidemiological measures in force until midnight tonight would be extended, underscoring that the restrictions would not be tightened at the national level, but as necessary from county to county.

Speaking to the press after a meeting of the government's Scientific Advisory Council, Božinović said that meeting mostly focused on the current situation with the spread of coronavirus.

County response teams, he added, will adopt stricter measures depending on the epidemiological situation which at the moment will not be ramped up at the national level.

He said that the situation varies from county to county, adding that currently Primorje-Gorski Kotar has the strictest measures.

Vaccines no longer doubtful in Croatia 

Božinović announced that an additional 50 million doses of vaccines were arriving in the EU in the second quarter and he expressed hope that the number of doses for Croatia would not be brought into question.

He added that the experts had different opinions regarding school lessons but there is no reason now to change the decision for schools to go online as the number of those infected is not falling but actually increasing.

Asked what number would be required to ramp up restrictions according to the experts, Božinović said that some countries that introduced so-called traffic lights had tied their own hands in some situations.

"We are referring to trends here. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis and applying measures on a county to county basis. I think that we won't refrain from that approach as it has shown to be correct so far," he underscored.

Croatia has not registered the experiences with AstraZeneca's vaccination like in other countries

As far as mistrust towards the AstraZeneca vaccine is concerned, Božinović said that reports by the HALMED medical agency and the Croatian Institute for Public Health "have not had any experiences that are being referred to in other countries."

However, it will be necessary to improve the trust in that vaccine through communication with the public, recalling that government members, including the Prime Minister, were inoculated with that vaccine.

"It is important for the overall public to realise that the pandemic has affected all four corners of the earth and that we will come out of this situation when an adequate solution is applied in all the countries affected by COVID," Božinović underlined, adding that it was important for the vaccine to be available everywhere.

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