December 31, 2020 – Health Minister Vili Beroš commented on the record blood donations collected in Petrova Hospital in Zagreb yesterday and coronavirus vaccine doses sent to the quake-affected area.

As N1 reports, in front of the Dubrava Hospital, where some COVID positive patients arrived from the earthquake-affected area, Health Minister Vili Beroš commented on patients' situation after the earthquake.

Record blood doses after 1995

"This morning, I received information from the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine that yesterday, a record number of blood doses was collected in Zagreb's Petrova Hospital, over 750 doses. The last time we had a similar turnout was August 5, 1995, the beginning of the Storm war operation. This shows the consciousness of the Croatian people," said Beroš.

"From a health point of view, this is a challenge. We want to provide health care to everyone. Given that most health facilities have been severely damaged, I believe we will respond adequately. As much as 90 percent of the Sisak hospital is out of order, so we have to adjust the health system and provide health care to the entire surrounding area," said Beroš.

He pointed out that many health centers are out of order. He also revealed that the Health Ministry sends about a thousand doses of vaccine to the affected area.

'Virus is still here'

"On Saturday, a team of epidemiologists from the Croatian Institute for Public Health will vaccinate all people who are in collective accommodation, emergency workers, and emergency services who are in the area and who will be there for three weeks, including all members of civil protection. Plans exist to adapt to the situation. Epidemiologists will estimate the situation and see how many vaccines are still needed. We are sending more than 1000 doses," said Beroš.

The Minister pointed out that there are enough reserves of protective equipment. He also said that the problem of drug delivery would be solved. Rapid antigen tests are being conducted among nursing home users in the area to find out if there are infections in collective accommodation.

"After the earthquake, Minister Aladrović contacted me. They enabled the accommodation for nursing home users from Petrinja in the Popovača Hospital and other places. There are positive cases among the users, so we are looking for accommodation for them with the county authorities. We still have to stick to measures, masks, distances, disinfection. The virus is still there. These circumstances favor its spread," said Beroš.

The Minister stressed that all health professionals with COVID patients must receive the promised money for the reward.

For more on the Petrinja earthquake, please follow our dedicated section.

ZAGREB, Dec 18, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros on Friday warned that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and people without symptoms can still infect others with coronavirus, underscoring that only vaccination can result in collective immunity. 

"It is important to know that people who have recovered from COVID can still infect other," Beros told a press conference by the national COVID response team when asked how people should act after recovery.

He explained that people who have recovered from COVID obtain immunity which means that they will probably not be ill in the coming period however that does not mean that they won't infect someone else.

"We have to think of others. Wearing masks is of essential importance as is vaccination. In order to obtain herd immunity we have to consider vaccination and protect not just oursevles but others too. Only by our concerted action, can we prevent the spread of this virus and epidemic," he explained.

He underscored the importance of tightening epidemiological measures ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays because of asymptomatic people.

"A certain portion of people who are infected are asymptomatic. They do not know that and they will visit their families, socialise with elderly members and transfer the virus," Beros said, explaining the reason to ban movement during the holidays.

ZAGREB, Dec 14, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday that his ministry had sent the KBC Zagreb hospital, the KB Dubrava hospital and the Hospital for Lung Diseases, also in Zagreb, an instruction to urgently take steps to increase their accommodation capacity for COVID-19 patients.

Beros said the instruction was sent in light of the current epidemiological situation and that the three hospitals would also secure additional staff and equipment.

He added that activities related to the reassignment of medical workers and equipment were ongoing, underlining the deployment of additional doctors and nurses to the hospitals in Varazdin and Cakovec.

"At the meeting with epidemiologists on December 11 we analysed the strategy for fast antigen testing in order to put hotpots under control. Today's meeting of the expert group of the COVID-19 response team discussed the need to increase the accommodation capacity of medical institutions and other current problems so as to determine steps to be taken in the coming weeks," Beros said.

He added that the distribution of 100,000 rapid antigen tests from commodity reserves to county institutes of public health had begun and that so far a total of 250,000 had been distributed.

Beros stressed that the number of COVID-19 patients who were being admitted to hospitals had grown mildly compared to last week, as had the number of new patients on ventilators.

"Even though it is resilient and sustainable in terms of organisation, the health system must be protected from maximum strain. Our main goal is to maintain, as long as possible, the centralised treatment of COVID-19 patients, that way we are reducing the possibility of the virus entering more hospitals, which will  make it possible to continue providing regular medical care," said the minister.

He reported that the number of coronavirus infections worldwide had exceeded 72,655,000 and that the number of related fatalities was above 1,619,999.

In Croatia, there are 1,430 active cases among medical workers while 807 are in self-isolation.

December 13, 2020 - Minister of Health Vili Beros spoke on HRT about a total lockdown in Croatia, the new measures, the current epidemiological situation, and the beginning of vaccination.

Asked if he felt responsible because, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Croatia is the worst in terms of the number of active COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, he said:

"Of course, I feel responsible. However, this is a multidimensional, complex crisis, and there are no unambiguous solutions and answers. The only thing that is possible in the given circumstances is to monitor the epidemiological situation from day to day, to monitor all those elements that clearly describe it - the number of newly infected, their distribution, appearance, and based on these elements to prescribe measures," Beros said. 

He also added that two weeks is not a big enough period of time to indicate a trend. He also reminded that it took France six weeks after the national lockdown to stabilize the situation. But even after that, they have upward trends again. He believes that four to five weeks should pass after the measures are introduced, assuming that people adhere to them.

He claims that a full lockdown in Croatia is the final option and believes it will not happen.

"We have seen in the example of the neighboring countries what a hard lockdown brings. It is not a good thing. So we need to find a coexistence model in the circumstances of the new normal; we must enable certain economic activities while reducing everything we can reduce. And that is exactly what we are working on; we are trying to balance the measures. It would be easiest to introduce the toughest lockdown and close everything. But that is not realistic, especially since we do not know how long this situation will last," Beros said.

The health minister said that at the moment, it is not very certain that a ban on inter-county travel will be introduced around December 21, although they are discussing it as well. However, this will be introduced if the epidemiological situation is such that it requires a similar way of organizing work. 

"Personally, I don't think that will happen. But, if the epidemiological situation is not adequate, we will consider similar measures. Of course, taking into account the working circumstances, i.e., exceptions that would enable work processes," he said.

Emphasizing the importance of antigen tests, Beros said that Croatia procures significant quantities of these tests and will increase their number in hotspots where there are many newly infected.

Stating that the Croatian Institute of Public Health will conduct a national campaign to promote vaccination, Beros warned that - for vaccination to be effective - a large part of the population must be vaccinated. He pointed out that if, for example, less than 70 percent of the population is vaccinated, this will not guarantee significant prevention of the spread of the infection.

Beros also said that introducing a "COVID card" is not being considered at the moment. Still, if the virus continues to cause such severe clinical pictures after spring or summer - that is not ruled out either.

To read more about coronavirus in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.