ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,529 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 46 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

There are 2,227 COVID patients in hospital, 221 of whom are on ventilators.

Since the start of the epidemic, 318,837 people have contracted coronavirus, 6,784 of them have died, while 295,885 have recovered, including 2,431 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 34,660 people in self-isolation, and the number of active cases in Croatia stands at 16,168.

To date, 1,743,017 people have been tested, 8,783 of whom over the past 24 hours.

As at 22 April, 746,878 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Croatia, and 593,972 people have been vaccinated, with 438,706 people receiving the first dose and 152,906 receiving both doses. For 2,360 people there is no data on how many doses they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 22 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,885 new cases of the coronavirus infection, and there were 46 deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

There are 2,229 COVID patients in hospitals, including 226 on ventilators.

Over the past 24 hours, 46 people have died, bringing the death toll to 6,738 since the start of the epidemic.

There are 16,116 active cases in Croatia today, and 33,940 people are in self-isolation.

To date, 1,734,234 people have been tested, including 10,537 people tested over the past 24 hours.

Since the start of the epidemic in Croatia, a total of 316,308 people have contracted coronavirus, and 293,454 of them have recovered, 2,103 recovered in the past 24 hours.

As at 21 April, 726,315 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Croatia, and 578,273 people have been vaccinated, with 427,919 people receiving the first dose and 148,042 receiving both doses. For 2,312 people there is no data on how many doses they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 3,117 coronavirus cases and 49 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases is 15,380 and includes 2,201 hospitalised patients, 230 of whom are on ventilators, while 31,562 people are self-isolating.

To date 1.7 million people have been tested for the virus, including 10,523 in the past 24 hours.

Through 20 April 708,960 vaccine doses were administered, with 419,252 people receiving the first dose and 143,796 both. For 2,116 people there is no information on whether they received one or both shots.

To date Croatia has registered 313,523 coronavius cases and 6,692 deaths, while 291,351 patients have recovered, including 1,687 in the past 24 hours.

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

ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 9,831 coronavirus tests have been performed in Croatia and of them 21.4%, that is 2,106, have turned out to be positive, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team stated on Tuesday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by 42 to 6,643.

Croatia has currently 13,999 active cases, including 2,198 patients who are receiving hospital treatment and of them 213 are placed on ventilators.

As many as 30,534 people are self-isolating.

Since the outbreak of the infection on 25 February last year, 1,713,174 people have been tested for the virus. So far Croatia has registered 310,306 coronavirus cases, and 289,664 recovered patients, including 1,877 in the past 24 hours.

Since the beginning of this year, 698,032 COVID vaccine doses have been administered under Croatia's vaccine rollout plan. The press release reads that until 19 April, 556,969 people have been given shots against this disease. As many as 413,812 people have received the first dose of the two-dose vaccine, and 141,063 have been inoculated with both doses.

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

ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 2,698 new coronavirus cases while 44 people have died as a consequence, the national COVID-19 response team said on Friday.

There are 16,053 active cases in the country, including 2,003 hospitalised patients, of whom 186 are on ventilators.

There are currently 31,195 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, there have been a total of 303,598 people infected with the virus and 6,486 people have died as a consequence.

A total of 281,059 people have recovered from the disease, including 1,908 in the past 24 hours.

To date a total of 1,683,651 people have been tested for the virus, including 9,233 in the past 24 hours.

As of 15 April a total of 643,834 doses of vaccines have been administered, inoculating 519,375 people. Of that number, 393,002 people have received the first dose and 124,459 have received both doses. For 1,914 people there is no data on which dose they have received.

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

ZAGREB, 15 April, 2021 - The head of the national COVID response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said on Thursday that the epidemiological measures in force until midnight tonight would be extended, underscoring that the restrictions would not be tightened at the national level, but as necessary from county to county.

Speaking to the press after a meeting of the government's Scientific Advisory Council, Božinović said that meeting mostly focused on the current situation with the spread of coronavirus.

County response teams, he added, will adopt stricter measures depending on the epidemiological situation which at the moment will not be ramped up at the national level.

He said that the situation varies from county to county, adding that currently Primorje-Gorski Kotar has the strictest measures.

Vaccines no longer doubtful in Croatia 

Božinović announced that an additional 50 million doses of vaccines were arriving in the EU in the second quarter and he expressed hope that the number of doses for Croatia would not be brought into question.

He added that the experts had different opinions regarding school lessons but there is no reason now to change the decision for schools to go online as the number of those infected is not falling but actually increasing.

Asked what number would be required to ramp up restrictions according to the experts, Božinović said that some countries that introduced so-called traffic lights had tied their own hands in some situations.

"We are referring to trends here. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis and applying measures on a county to county basis. I think that we won't refrain from that approach as it has shown to be correct so far," he underscored.

Croatia has not registered the experiences with AstraZeneca's vaccination like in other countries

As far as mistrust towards the AstraZeneca vaccine is concerned, Božinović said that reports by the HALMED medical agency and the Croatian Institute for Public Health "have not had any experiences that are being referred to in other countries."

However, it will be necessary to improve the trust in that vaccine through communication with the public, recalling that government members, including the Prime Minister, were inoculated with that vaccine.

"It is important for the overall public to realise that the pandemic has affected all four corners of the earth and that we will come out of this situation when an adequate solution is applied in all the countries affected by COVID," Božinović underlined, adding that it was important for the vaccine to be available everywhere.

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

ZAGREB, 15 April, 2021 -  Of 10,876 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia in the last 24 hours, 27%, that is 2,927, have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

The COVID-related death toll has risen by 43 to 6,442.

Currently, there are 15,307 active cases of the infection, including 1,988 patients in hospitals, of whom 179 are placed on ventilators.

A total of 29,551 people are self-isolating.

Since the confirmation of the first case of the infection with the novel virus on 25 February 2020, Croatia has performed 1 674 418 tests, and to date 300,900 people have tested positive. Of them, 279,151 have recovered from this disease, including 1,457 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, under the Croatia's vaccine rollout plan, 617,516 doses have been administered. As many as 381,164 people have received the first shot of the two-dose vaccine, while 117,283 have been inoculated with both doses.

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

ZAGREB, 14 April, 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Wednesday that the government and representatives of drug wholesalers had reached agreement on a debt settlement scheme.

The issue of the debt made the wholesalers restrict and defer the deliveries of medicines to hospitals in late March.

"Today's meeting is one more step towards the debt settlement," Minister Beroš said adding that only together the two sides could solve this decades-long issue which became exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Zdravko Marić outlined the elements of the scheme.

In the next three months we will transfer some funds to the Croatian Agency for Health Insurance (HZZO), and the Health Ministry so as to enable the cash flow in those institutions and enable them to pay liabilities towards wholesalers and providers, Marić said adding that those funds would be ensured through the redirection and reallocation of outlays in the state budget.

The monthly allocation for hospitals will be HRK 600 million and an additional 300 million for pharmacies.

In June, the government is likely to conduct a budget revision whereby an additional cash inflow for hospitals and pharmacies will be ensured so that debt deferment period lasts no longer than 180 days for hospitals and 120 days for pharmacies.

In June alone, 135 million kuna will be directed to pharmacies and HRK 760 million to hospitals, with the plan to respect the deferment periods in the remainder of the year.

Marić hopes that this scheme will remove any need for any new meeting with wholesalers on the debt.

The finance minister also expects reform efforts in preventing any  further accumulation of liabilities and in this context he mentioned the plan to cut the deferment period to 60 days.

The wholesalers' representative Diana Percač thanked the ministers for efforts to provide funds to cover the debt.

She also pledged the continuation of the delivery of drugs to pharmacies until the end of this year.

(€1 = HRK 7.571658)

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

April 14, 2021 - With the season approaching, the question on everyone's mind is will traveling during the coronavirus pandemic to Croatia bring problems for tourism in the country?' A light at the end of the tunnel still might be possible.

While many high-reputation magazines regularly praise Croatia as a top destination, this summer, the season will be only as strong as the health situation regarding coronavirus – both in Croatia and abroad, from where the country welcomes as many tourists as possible. Sadly, as Croatian National Radiotelevision (HRT) reports, due to the bad pandemic situation, many European countries, including Croatia, are canceling the travel season.

While, as we reported on TCN, many flights are returning and coming to Croatia, the measures are possibly demotivating travelers.

HRT says Croatia is declared as a highly-risked country in Germany, and returning citizens need to show a negative test that is no older than 48 hours which is a change to previous arrangments when Germans could test after returning home.

„The English planned to allow traveling from May 17 but tour operators and others don't have a big number of reservations to make it profitable so everything is postponed until June 24“, said hotelier  Domagoj Tomasović to HRT. 

British tourists were indeed expected mid-May, but as Darija Reić, director of the Croatian Tourist Board in London, said on the "Good Morning Croatia show" on HRT, there are still fines for non-essential travel.

„Travelling outside of UK is still illegal if you don't travel for essential reasons which include traveling for business, education or medicinal purposes. Otherwise, it's possible to be fined 5000 pounds“, explained Reić, as noted by Turizmoteka.

Tonči Glavina, state secretary for Tourism ministry, said for HRT that the UK is not alone in sending a message to its citizens to not travel anywhere and went on to say that may not be bad for Croatia.

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While the UK stands better in the percentage of vaccinated people than Croatia, Croatians are focusing on reaching the green zone by the end of May. Seventy thousand vaccinated workers in the tourist sector are the goal for the country.

„If that doesn't happen until the start of the season, then we need tests and it would be good if tourist board make testing zones and if we co-finance the expenses of testing to our guests“, concluded Tomasović.

The Ministry of Tourism already secured 20 million kuna to co-finance testing for tourists if Croatia doesn't reach the green zone.

PCR tests currently cost 500 kuna; quick antigen test is 150 kuna, and the translations of the results to English is 125 kuna. Twenty tourists were already tested in Zagreb on Tuesday. 

Learn more about coronavirus: news and travel in Croatia on our TC page.

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ZAGREB, 14 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 3,099 new coronavirus cases while 41 people have died as a consequence, the national COVID response team reported on Wednesday.

That is a significantly higher number of infections and deaths compared to Tuesday when 1,936 new cases and 25 deaths were registered.

There are 13,880 active cases in the country, including 1,955 hospitalised patients, of whom 185 are on ventilators. There are currently 27,528 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, there have been a total of 297,973 people infected with the virus and 6,399 people have died as a consequence. A total of 277,694 have recovered from the disease, including 1,274 in the past 24 hours.

To date a total of 1,663,542 have been tested for the virus, including 11,017 in the past 24 hours.

As of 13 April a total of 605,423 doses of vaccines have been administered, inoculating 491,601 people. Of that number, 375,993 people have received the first dose and 113,822 have received both doses. For 1,786 people there was no data on which dose they received.

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