August the 27th, 2021 - The Croatian vaccine rollout is going rather poorly, with only Romania and Bulgaria behind us in terms of the number of fully vaccinated people in the country.

The pandemic is continuing despite the vaccination rollout happening more or less all over the world to some degree or another. Some European countries, such as the United Kingdom, have dropped the majority or all of their epidemiological measures as the vaccine rollout is excellent and hospitalisations and deaths drop.

Not all European countries, however, can boast of the same vaccination success. Croatia, despite relying heavily on tourism, gatherings and events in which the virus would easily spread and cause havoc, is unfortunately one of them.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian vaccine rollout has been at its lowest level since back in mid-February this year, when the vaccine had arrived in the country, been made available to all, and the campaign had only just actually begun.

About 0.15 people per 100 inhabitants have been vaccinated in the last few days, which puts the Republic of Croatia at the bottom of the European Union, writes Index.

It is important to know that Croatia is one of the weakest vaccinated countries in the entire European Union. Only Romania and Bulgaria are worse than us. So far, only 41 percent of the population has received a single dose, and only 38 percent have been fully vaccinated, which speaks volumes about the Croatian vaccine rollout and of attitudes towards it in general.

The poor Croatian vaccine rollout means that the chances of reaching the needed vaccination levels in the foreseeable future, which could ensure a return to relatively normal life, are very low.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, borderand document requirements, as well as the locations of testing centres and vaccination points across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language.

May the 2nd, 2021 - Krunoslav Capak has announced changes to the Croatian vaccination procedure for those people who have already contracted and recovered from the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian vaccination procedure was tweaed a couple of days ago, with those who have already suffered the virus in mind.

''We published an amendment to the recommendations on receiving the coronavirus vaccination. Those who return positive results on antigen tests are being accepted into the database of coronavirus patients, but are not added to the number of positive results received from PCR tests. We accepted the use of these rapid tests for border crossings when more than half of European countries accepted the same. We also took that risk because rapid tests aren't as sensitive as PCR tests are, but in the last two or three months there has been an improvement in the sensitivity of these tests,'' stated Krunoslav Capak at a recent press conference of the National Civil Protection Directorate.

“The British experience is that no thromboembolism has been reported after receiving the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. If, after receiving the first dose of the vaccine, a person becomes ill, then they should receive the second dose of the vaccine three to six months after their recovery. Our recommendation is that people who have received the first dose of AstraZeneca also receive the second dose.

We vaccinate against coronavirus the second time twelve weeks after the first dose is received. We've been asked if that period could be shortened if someone is travelling somewhere and can't be present for their second vaccination. The manufacturer's recommendation is 8-12 weeks, and maybe even a little earlier. We've also been asked about side effects. I'm the side effects reported to HALMED here, from 0.3 to 0.5 percent. So, every 200th or 300th person reports a side effect, and most of them are mild issues: pain, fever and the like after vaccination. That's not all. Many people feel mild side effects but don't report them. Therefore, there's no need to worry. This reaction is proof that something is happening in the body. This is very normal and happens with most other vaccines,'' explained Capak.

“People who have already contracted and since recovered from the novel coronavirus should only be vaccinated with one dose. The second dose after their recovery doesn't really contribute to their level of immunity, as has been shown by the research of Professor Alemka Markotic. This has now become an official decision. Everyone who has recovered the disease will receive only one dose of the vaccine,'' said Capak when discussing the changes to the Croatian vaccination procedure.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of vaccination points and testing centres across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section.