ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,802 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 16 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said in Friday.

The number of active cases stands at 9,052. There are 1,107 COVID patients in hospitals, 115 of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case, a total of 264,111 people have been infected, 5,854 of them have died and 249,205 have recovered, including 1,141 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 27,892 people in self-isolation.

To date, 1,511,40 people have been tested, 8,003 of whom over the past 24 hours.

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

ZAGREB, 25 March, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has performed 8,396 tests for coronavirus and 1,673 of them, or 20%, have returned positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Currently, there are 8,407 active cases in the country, and of them, 1,071  patients are receiving hospital treatment, including100 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, the death toll related to COVID-19 has increased by 10 to 5,838.

Since the outbreak of this infectious disease in late February last year, over 1.5 million tests have been performed, and 262,309 people have turned out to be positive. Of them, 248,064 have recovered, including 856 in the last 24 hours.

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

ZAGREB, 24 March (Hina) - Andreja Marić of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Rada Borić of the New Left party on Wednesday critcised the Croatian government as well as the European Commission over procrastination in administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Addressing the national parliament, Andreja Marić said that the Croatian government failed this test.

Until three days ago, a mere 470,000 doses of all vaccine producers were delivered to Croatia, which is only 14 doses per 100 inhabitants, Marić said.

To date, 358,000 doses have been administered, and 8.9% of citizens have received one shot so far of the two-dose vaccine and 2.2% have been inoculated with both doses. Only Bulgaria and Latvia have fared worse than Croatia in the European Union, she said.

Marić insists that delays in coronavirus vaccine deliveries are not the result of the unjust distribution inside the European Union but a consequence of Croatia's wrong decision to rely on AstraZeneca vaccines at the beginning.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 24 March, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Health Minister Vili Beroš were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at Government House on Tuesday, and Beroš said that they had sent a message of confidence in medical science and the medical profession.

"Today we have sent a strong message of confidence in medical science, the medical profession, primarily because we were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. We will continue to work diligently on vaccinating Croatian citizens so that they could continue living and working with as little risk of infection as possible. Every vaccinated individual contributes to the protection of the population and is definitely a step towards our old normal, and a step closer to a successful tourist season," Beroš told reporters after the vaccination.

He added that there were still many challenges ahead and that it was important to think about future challenges such as new variants of the virus.

"I believe that with this message we have encouraged citizens to follow us on that path, to curb the epidemic and return to our normal life," Beroš said.

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

ZAGREB, 24 March, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,891 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 20 deaths, while the number of active cases currently stands at 7,600, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Wednesday.

There are 1,038 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, 99 of whom are on ventilators.

At the moment, there are 23,766 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, a total of 260,636 people have contracted coronavirus, 5,828 of them have died, and 247,208 have recovered, including 665 in the last 24 hours.

As of Wednesday, a total of 1,495,041 people have been tested, 9,327 of whom over the past 24 hours.

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

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.

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.

ZAGREB, 19 March, 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Thursday that Croatia had contacted two Chinese COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and that talks were at at an initial stage, while Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the situation with AstraZeneca's vaccine proved that caution was important.

"We have established contact with manufacturers of the Chinese vaccine, or more precisely, with manufacturers of two types of Chinese vaccine. We have been given some preliminary information and talks will continue," Beroš told a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

He said that all important aspects of the vaccines needed to be discussed, such as safety, efficiency and quality.

Plenković said that the situation with AstraZeneca "is more than clear proof of how one needs to be cautious when placing a vaccine on the market."

"We are now talking about the credibility of a vaccine that has passed clearance and filters in America, the United Kingdom and the European Union. What would we do with vaccines that have none of these credentials? We have to take that into account," the prime minister warned.

Easter passes not discussed

As regards the deterioration in the epidemiological situation and possible passes for Easter, Plenković said that no one talked about such passes and that they were not an option.

He said that Croatia had now ordered more vaccine from Pfizer than from AstraZeneca, but added that at this point no one knew at what rate vaccines would be distributed from 1 May onward. "If a negative scenario happens with AstraZeneca, we are already in the process of ordering more vaccine from Pfizer to offset that."

He said he was confident that progress would be made on a corrective mechanism for vaccine distribution because "people understand that it is not countries that are responsible for this situation."

Asked if he was satisfied with how the EU handled vaccine procurement, Plenković said there was no doubt that the contracts could have been better written in terms of the pace of vaccine delivery. As for people's scepticism about the safety of vaccines, he said it was also important what the media said about them.

"We need to respect authorities on this matter, and our authorities are the World Health Organisation, the European Medicines Agency and the Croatian Agency for Medicines and Medicinal Devices. These are regulators. If a vast majority of professionals from a large number of countries think that this is all right, then we should use that for guidance. That's the most logical and best approach we can take," the prime minister said.

Additional encouragement to regional approach

The head of the national coronavirus response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that the team would unveil guidelines for the Adriatic counties on Friday as an additional encouragement to the county response teams because the incidence rate differed from county to county.

"We do not think it is time for horizontal measures, especially not in those counties, and there are more of them in the north of the country, where the epidemiological situation is good," Božinović said.

He noted that county response teams had been invited from the outset to propose tighter restrictions because their epidemiologists and professionals on the ground know where a coronavirus hotspot has emerged and what has caused it.

"This regional approach is not just an encouragement, but also a preparation for what is and what will become an integral part of the EU policy for the tourist season," Božinović said, calling for increased inspections of compliance with the restrictions in place and for self-discipline.

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