March 13, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic addressed the press on Friday morning to announce the closure of all schools in Croatia from next week.

“The whole world is at war with the virus. The responsibility of every citizen is an essential discipline that will affect the spread of the epidemic. I call on everyone to be accountable and to listen carefully to the instructions and to all public health professionals. The headquarters will continue with all its activities as before, twice a day at 9 am and at 4 pm.”

"Everybody is thinking about closing schools. Our health experts say that a very small percentage of those infected are below the age of 20. But children are especially important, and we will stop teaching from Monday for two weeks."

Plenkovic said that all schools, from kindergartens to colleges will close from Monday, reports Index.hr. He added that schools will, however, be open in case there is no one to care for the child at home during those hours. 

After this meeting, Minister Zdravko Maric will meet with businesses and representatives of retail chains.

The number of cases of coronavirus in Croatia rose from 27 to 31 overnight, Health Minister Vili Beros announced at a 9am press conference in Zagreb.

There were two new cases in Istria, bringing the total there to 6, and two more in Zagreb, bringing the total to 12. the two Zagreb patients were from the close circle of existing patients, while one of the Istrian cases had returned from Italy, and the other had been in contact with someone from Zagreb who had returned to Switzerland. 

Beros said that he expected that number to rise in the coming days, but that there was no need to panic, and indeed the spreading of panic would have more serious consequences. Taking personal responsibility was crucial - avoiding public gatherings and things that are not necessary. He confirmed that some 500 people had been tested so far. 

TCN is producing a comprehensive daily update of the situation in Croatia, with an updated map of the cases, stats and locations. You can read yesterday's thorough update here, as well as view the latest map below, which will be updated later today. 

Currently there are no infections in Dalmatia at all, and the three entry points by air of Dubrovnik, Split and Zadar are free of the virus. Flights are functioning, although there have been cancellations. An overview of the flight situation from a couple of days ago can be found here - we will try and update the situation later today. 

Borders remain open, apart from some with Serbia, although the ferry connection to Italy has been suspended. In addition to the daily TCN briefing, you can follow all aspects of TCN's coronavirus coverage in the dedicated COVID-19 section by clicking here. 

Students from numerous Croatian schools up and down the country will be offered the chance to be trained for positions which are more in line with the current needs of the Croatian labour market.

In seventeen Croatian counties, students enrolling in this year's summer program will be given the option to take their education in a more practical direction in an attempt to aid the ailing Croatian economy, currently burdened with a demographic crisis, the main symptom of which is a lack of an appropriately qualified workforce.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/VLM writes on the 21st of June, 2019, what this involves is vocational interests that have never before been taught in these schools. In various secondary schools, each county has opened up new subjects by predicting the number of interested students who could enroll and start their education for occupations needed on the Croatian labour market.

Owing to the move, at the beginning of the new school year at the Prelog secondary school in Međimurje County, seven future brewers will be educated, and in a similar school in Čakovec, twenty places for budding interior decorators and ten places for shoe modellers and those who deal with leather garments will be opened.

Future high school students of a school located in Križevci will be able to, among other things, enroll to study to be computer technicians, a new class will be opened at a school in Koprivnica, where future technicians will be trained for electrical machines with applied computing, and in Đurđevac, education for potential future pedicurists will be made available.

In another Zadar school, students will be able to study to become CNC operators from autumn onwards, while in nearby Benkovac, the plans are to educate fourteen glassmasters and six chimney sweeps. In Croatia's southernmost county, Dubrovnik-Neretva County, they have decided to offer the opportunity for future high school students to be educated as hairdressers and beauticians, according to the Croatian Ministry of Education.

Zagreb high school students will be able to enroll in a language school which will be formed in one class in which there will be places for 26 students.

In Ludbreg this autumn, six students will have the opportunity to enroll in studying to become home appliance installers and six places will be available to learn the ropes of baking and the type of work in bakeries. In Vukovar-Srijem County, new courses are open to three schools, one will teach future auxiliary chefs and confectioners, there will be 22 places for the education of future hotel and tourism technicians, and budding auxiliary administrators will also have the chance to educated.

A new class will be opened at a school in Sisak where 24 future technicians will be educated for the development of video games, and in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, there will be a new class of mechatronics technicians starting this autumn.

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