August 25, 2020 - After a moped accident, a young man needed emergency surgery. Since his life was in danger, the doctors couldn't spend much time waiting around for the results. Now he is stable, but positive for COVID-19, and the Varaždin hospital is short of 25 medical staff until September 7.

According to a police report, the young man crashed into a tree in Vinica at around 2.10 am. "The nature of the injuries required urgent and immediate surgery on the patient's head. Subsequent testing determined that the patient was positive for COVID-19," said Dr. Kudelić, a neurosurgeon who operated on the young man. The young man is now stable, and not in danger of death, reports Jutarnji.hr. Since he operated on the injured young man, Dr. Kudelić is also among those who will work from home for the next 14 days. In addition to his work as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Nenad Kudelić is also the director of the Varaždin General Hospital.

After the emergency care of a young man who was in a traffic accident on Saturday, August 22, medics had to self-isolate. Thus, the Varaždin hospital was left without two neurosurgeons, four anesthesiologists, two surgeons, and 17 nurses.

Now patients are worried and are asking if their scheduled surgeries will be delayed. Dr. Kudelić confirms that there will be a delay. He announced the need for a temporary reorganisation of the work of the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Surgical Diseases.

"Some of the operations, which were planned by doctors who are now in self-isolation, will be postponed for 14 days, and all emergencies will still be taken care of as before," said Dr. Kudelić, one of the most respected domestic neurosurgeons. Therefore, his temporary absence from the operating room is a great disappointment for the patients.

Varaždin Hospital, like the County itself, is strict when it comes to measures to combat coronavirus. For example, although they do not have to do so officially, in addition to patients coming for surgery, tests are performed on all patients admitted through the emergency service to that hospital. That turned out to be a very good move.

"Thanks to that, another patient with an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection was detected in a short time, due to which, unfortunately, a certain number of employees ended up in self-isolation. Due to such security measures, uncontrolled penetration of the virus among healthcare workers and patients was prevented," Dr. Kudelić emphasised, pointing out that the hospital has no infected employees. In addition to the hospital staff, one team from the Emergency Medical Service, and two primary care teams from Varaždin's medical circles are in self-isolation.

Varaždin County, due to, as they say, the disrupted situation regarding healthcare, is appealing to the population not to "take precautionary epidemiological measures lightly."

Controversial wedding

Varaždin County has so far coped well with the coronavirus crisis. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 117 registered cases, 15 of which are attributed to the county because of the reported place of residence of those individuals. Last weekend will sadly spoil this favourable statistic. At one wedding in the vicinity of Ivanec, four people were infected.

COVID-19 affected a newlywed, two members of the band and some guests from Switzerland. Since there were a large number of guests at the wedding, it is believed that there will be more confirmed infections in the days to come.

At the moment, there are 49 infected people in the county, nine of whom are being treated at the Varaždin General Hospital. There are 270 people in isolation, who were connected with the sick.

Dr. Nenad Kudelić and his colleagues should return to work on September 7 if the tests are negative.

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ZAGREB, Aug 24, 2020 - School starts on September 7, and the main rule is to keep one's distance, not to mix pupils from different classes and to step up hygiene, while face masks will be mandatory only for pupils in higher grades if there is not enough space for them to keep their distance, the Education Ministry said on Monday.

The basic rule is that those who are showing symptoms of a communicable disease, are self-isolating or have contracted COVID-19 do not go to school, and to curb the disease it is necessary to keep one's distance, reduce contact between different classes, and step up personal hygiene and that of shared spaces, said Ivana Pavic Simetin, deputy head of the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) and coordinator of the task force in charge of elaborating and proposing school-related public health measures for the start of the 2020/2021 school and academic year.

Pupils should come into contact with a few teachers as possible during one day or period.

"It is recommended to have two or three hours of classes, two shifts, to have lessons start at different times, as well as breaks," Pavic Simetin said while presenting epidemiological guidelines for the start of the school year.

It is also suggested that schools provide replacement rooms in case there are too many pupils in a classroom for them to be at a distance of 1.5 meters in primary and 2 meters in secondary schools.

If there are no other possibilities, it is suggested that the school operates in shifts. For instance, half of the classes could attend school one week, and the second half next week.

In the event of a child exhibiting symptoms, he or she is separated from others and parents come to pick up their child, but there is no need to panic, and an epidemiologist should only be contacted if several children start showing symptoms.

If a child tests positive for COVID-19, the entire class or kindergarten group will undergo self-isolation.

Pavic-Simetin underscored that children were not superspreaders and that they rarely infect their family members or teachers.

Lower grades of primary schools to function as "bubbles"

Education and Science Minister Radovan Fuchs reiterated that classes in lower grades of primary school would follow the "bubble" model so pupils will not leave the classroom, they will have controlled access to the toilet, their teacher will be with them all the time and they will not mix with children from other classes. They will not have to wear face masks, nor will their teacher.

Pupils in higher grades of primary schools will only have to wear masks if there is not enough space for them to maintain physical distance.

Asked about optional subjects, such as religion, foreign languages, and IT, he underscored that there would be no mixing pupils from different classes, so if that was not possible, such classes would be held online.

There will be online classes if any of these two scenarios occurs: an entire class or school is undergoing self-isolation, or a class is being split up to provide more space for physical distancing, Fuchs said.

"That should not be a big problem, the least favorable version is to have children stay home," he underscored.

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ZAGREB, Aug 24, 2020 - Minister Nikolina Brnjac on Monday stated that the tourism sector was well prepared for the situation caused by the coronavirus and that the good tourism results, and government and crisis response team's measures had resulted in Croatia being recognized as a safe destination.

Commenting on claims by stakeholders in the tourism sector that it is going to take two to three years for tourism to get back to 2019's levels, Minister Brnjac said after meeting with representatives of the hotel industry, that it was of exceptional importance to "strategically think of further steps so that we can establish a sustainable and resilient system."

It is essential that everyone behaves responsibly and adheres to the recommended measures so that the positive trend in arrivals can continue this season and in that way, set the preconditions to maintain safety in the years to come, she said.

"The 2019 tourism season was above average in everything but the number of arrivals does not mean revenue too. That is why a tourism development strategy is important because it is important to know where we are going, what our objective is, and how to develop Croatia's tourism in the future. This situation with COVID is extraordinary. The tourism sector was exceptionally well prepared and the good results we have in fact, along with the government's measures which saved jobs and the measures by the Civil Protection Authority, have resulted in Croatia being recognized as a safe destination," the tourism minister underlined.

She explained that several ministries were in contact with those countries that have put Croatia on the quarantine list to ask that Croatia be treated according to the current developments in counties as the situation is not the same throughout the country.

"Hence, based on the epidemiological circumstances that will occur we expect other countries to review their lists. We have the biggest number of guests from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and considering that we are a car destination, thanks to the Tourist Board's good promotion, we used our advantage and good road network," she concluded.

Director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) Veljko Ostojic said that if the support measures had not been issued in March, the tourism season would definitely not be as it is because "employers would have been forced to lay off a significant number of workers and without workers there cannot be any tourism." 

We need information about job retention measures...because employers have to make certain decisions. It is also important to secure liquidity for the next tourism season and today we talked about the possibility of using EU funds, he said.

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ZAGREB, Aug 24, 2020- Over the past 24 hours, there have been 136 new cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia, after 1,722 tests were carried out, Health Minister Vili Beros told a press conference of the national COVID-19 response team in Zagreb on Monday.

There are 163 patients in hospitals, including 12 on ventilators. Two more people have died, and those victims were two elderly men.

Currently, there are 2,213 active cases, including 119 health workers, and 7,519 people are self-isolating, 515 of whom are health workers.

Since the first case of the infection was reported, a total of 8,312 people have tested positive for the virus, 5,926 people recovered, and 173 died.

Head of the COVID-19 response team and Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said that given the increase in the number of new infections they had agreed that local teams should define hotspots more precisely.

He expects some teams will come up with concrete measures, and if all teams have similar demands, then a measure can be introduced for the entire country.

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ZAGREB, Aug 21, 2020 - Croatia has registered a record high in daily cases with 265 new infections, which was to be expected given the tourist season, the national COVID-19 response team said on Friday, calling on young people who had been in high-risk situations to avoid contact with others.

The head of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, reiterated that they had introduced measures for night clubs and said that the situation on the ground showed that that had been a good move, but there were some "acts of resourcefulness".

It is not good, he said, that young people are moving from clubs to bars and restaurants which are allowed to work longer. There are also cases of wedding parties being moved from Dalmatia to Herzegovina, he said.

Therefore, the national COVID-19 response team will on Monday meet with local teams to adopt measures that would apply locally and restrict the working hours of facilities and reduce gatherings.

Asked about infections related to the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and the Sinjska Alka tournament, Capak said that there were two people in one continental county who did not know where they had got infected, and they had been to those events, but there were no cases in Split-Dalmatia County related to the events.

He noted that the team had achieved a good balance between opening up in the season and protecting people's health. He believes the measures are good and that most tourists feel safe and hope that the season will continue for a few more days or weeks.

Asked about his statement that the laid-back personality of Dalmatian people was to blame for the latest coronavirus statistics, Capak said that when he had spoken of relaxed behavior he had meant it in a good way, "except during a period of infection when caution is necessary."

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ZAGREB, Aug 21, 2020 - Croatia has 265 new cases of the coronavirus infection, the highest daily number so far, but Health Minister Vili Beros does not consider this to be a significant departure from recent trends and believes that it is due to the summer tourist season.

Speaking at a regular news conference of the national COVID-19 response team on Friday, Beros said that 50% or 137 of the new cases were people who were in self-isolation, which, he said, showed that epidemiologists were doing a good job.

Beros noted that 1,647 tests had been conducted in the past 24 hours and that currently, 6,446 people were self-isolating.

There has been one fatality in the past 24 hours, an elderly woman.

The death toll stands at 169. Eleven people have been hospitalized since yesterday, which puts the total number of hospitalized patients at 135, including 12 who are still on ventilators, Beros said.

There are currently 1,842 active cases of the COVID-19 disease in the country.

Beros believes that the latest figures do not depart radically from those in recent days and that they are due to Croatia being open to tourists, with a large number of foreign nationals having vacationed on its coast.

The increase in infections is certainly also due to "a certain kind of behavior in the summertime," said Beros.

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ZAGREB, Aug 20, 2020 - There have been 255 new cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia in the last 24 hours, and there are now 1,689 active cases, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Of those active cases, 127 are receiving hospital treatment, including 13 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 2,397 people have been tested and since the outbreak of the infection on 25 February, 144,521 tests have been performed.

To date, 7329 people have caught the virus, and of them, 5,472 have fully recovered, while 168 have died.

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ZAGREB, Aug 19, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, of 1,653 tests performed for coronavirus, 219 have returned positive, and currently Croatia has 1,520 active cases, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Wednesday.

Of those active cases, 122 are receiving hospital treatment, including 11 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, there have been two more COVID-related deaths, bringing the death toll to 168.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the infection was confirmed in the country, a total of 7,074 people have contracted the disease, and of the 5,386 have recovered.

To date, 142,124 people have been tested for the virus.

Currently, 5,459 people are self-isolating.

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ZAGREB, Aug 17, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours there have been 85 new cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia, and there are 1,236 active cases, the national COVID-19 management team said on Monday.

Since February 25, when the first case of the infection in the country was confirmed, 6,656 people have contracted the disease, the press release said.

Of the total number of active cases 126 people are now hospitalised, including 11 who are on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 990 people have been tested for the virus. To date, a total of 138,647 people have been tested for the infection. To date 5,254 have recovered, and 166 have died.

August 16, 2020 - Italian TV reports shocking disregard for social distancing as young Italians go wild on Pag

Italian TV have aired shocking footage showing their young countrymen on holiday. The report, aired on the TG1 segment of Rai Uno TV shows hundreds of island holidaymakers packed into nightclubs as young Italians go wild on Pag. They display a wanton disregard for any social distancing.

One young Italian lady is interviewed and claims there is no more Coronavirus. Another, a male, says he'll get tested upon returning home, although he's not worried because he is young. Perhaps his elderly relatives should be more worried?

Young italians go wild on Pag

After a slow start to the season, scenes from the report appear to show the famous nightlife of Pag now in full swing. With so many holidaymakers from Italy currently enjoying the island, its clubs and the alcohol they serve, it appears it would be a struggle for the venues themselves to enforce social distancing regulations. But, the holidaymakers do not appear keen to take on the responsibility for themselves.

While it makes a change for judgemental TV reports from the Croatian holiday season for once not to feature British youths, this is hardly a matter for amusement; Italy was one of the first European countries hit hard by COVID-19. It took a sustained and painful effort to bring the number of infections down. Italians at home must be watching such scenes with horror. They are terrified of the virus re-emerging at the uncontrollable level seen earlier this year. Already 30 young people who had been on holiday in Croatia this year returned home with Coronavirus infections.

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