ZAGREB, 14 Aug, 2021 - The Delta coronavirus variant is the predominant one not just in Europe but Croatia as well, where it makes up 77% of the cases, epidemiologist Sanja Kurečić Filipović said on Saturday, not ruling out a tightening of restrictions if the number of cases continued to rise.

We have been seeing a continuous rise over the past month. We can ascribe it also to the inflow of foreign tourists and increased socialising, but we are entering the autumn period when the virus will have other factors in its favour, the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) epidemiologist told the national broadcaster HRT.

She called on people to comply with COVID rules and said she hoped the vaccination numbers would increase.

She said the vaccine rollout campaign was ongoing and that the HZJZ expected interest in vaccination to increase after people returned from vacation when, she added, they would probably think about their responsibility to children going to kindergarten and school.

Ahead of tomorrow's Feast of the Assumption holiday, she called on pilgrims to comply with public transport COVID rules and to keep a distance in buildings where services were held and to wear masks indoors.

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June the 28th, 2021 - Croatian epidemiologist Iva Pem Novosel has stated that the Delta variant has been found in numerous places in the Republic of Croatia.

Vaccination and warmer temperatures (okay, boiling hot temperatures if we're being honest) might have swayed the infection rate for the better, with numbers falling and COVID hospitals returning to normality, but the fast-spreading Delta variant of the novel coronavirus has now been detected and confirmed in three Croatian counties.

As the vaccination rollout continues across the country, Europe and the rest of the world, the ongoing pandemic is still throwing spanners in the works for many. New variants which have the potential to be more resistant to the current vaccines we have on hand are represent a current threat, and as borders begin to slowly open up and anti-epidemic measures ease, it's difficult to say what the outcome could be in the eyes of some.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian epidemiologist Iva Pem Novosel from the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Deputy Director of the Dr. Andrija Stampar Institite, Sandra Sikic, chief Zadar epidemiologist Alan Medic and AKD sales director Adela Jelinek Biscan recently spoke on Croatian Radio.

Iva Pem Novosel said that the British coronavirus strain detected back in December 2020 is still responsible for the most infections detected across Croatia: last week, 207 samples were sequenced, of which 165 or about 80 percent were confirmed to be the Alpha or so-called British strain of the novel coronavirus, while 26 are the Delta variant.

Iva Pem Novosel said that the most cases of Delta strain were recorded in Dalmatia, more precisely in Sibenik-Knin County - with 19 positive cases seeing the strain responsible, then six in Medjimurje and one case in Zagreb.

Zadar epidemiologist Alan Medic said that the Delta strain is most likely present down in Zadar County as well, but it is yet to be confirmed.

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