ZAGREB, 4 Oct 2021 - The Croatian province of the Society of Jesus said on Monday it did not authorize father Zdravko Knežević to participate in this morning's protest outside a Zagreb hospital against mandatory COVID certificates for health workers.

Knežević was among some 50 protesters who booed Health Minister Vili Beroš upon his arrival there to mark the start of the certificate mandate in the health sector. The media reported that Knežević shouted "treason, the gallows, you are Judases" to Beroš.

In a press release, the Croatian province of the Society of Jesus distanced itself from Knežević's participation in the protest, even though he said he was there as a private person.

The province also distanced itself from his statements at the protest, saying that some of them, as carried by the media, were totally inappropriate. "Because of that, I apologize to everyone who was hurt by them," father Dalibor Renić said in the press release.

"I believe health workers and their leadership deserve our trust and support in their attempts to give citizens the best healthcare in this pandemic crisis," he added.

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ZAGREB, 14 March 2021 - On the occasion of World Kidney Day, observed on 11 March, a medical team from the KBC Zagreb hospital presented the immunoadsorption method allowing organ transplantation in patients in whom such a procedure would not be possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KBC Zagreb is the first hospital in Croatia to apply the immunoadsorption method to remove specific pathological antibodies in the process of transplantation while preserving the protective bodies in the patient's blood to protect them against infections. In that way, the patient is not exposed to the additional risk of infectious complications, the head of the hospital's Kidney Transplantation Department, Nikolina Bašić Jukić, told a press conference.

This method has enabled us to perform transplantation in two highly-sensitive patients and to save the life of a 30-year-old woman after lung transplantation because of chronic antibody-mediated rejection, she added.

The director of KBC Zagreb, Ante Ćorušić, said that immunoadsorption enables a better medical outcome in transplant patients at the time of the coronavirus pandemic. "This method is slightly more expensive but is much more effective. This is a great success not just for the Department of Nephrology but for the entire transplantation team, including urologists and cardiologists."

At this largest centre for kidney transplantation in Croatia, 43 patients received new kidneys last year. Ten such procedures have been performed this year, and only five patients remain on the waiting list.

The transplantation program was interrupted twice last year due to an escalation of the coronavirus pandemic, as a result of which fewer than average procedures were performed. The annual average ranges between 70 and 80 procedures, the head of the Department of Urology, Željko Kaštelan, said.

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January 6, 2021 – At 1:50 pm today, Zagreb police received a report of a shooting in Dubrava. Namely, someone shot at a residential building, and one man was injured.

As the Zagreb police confirmed for Večernji list, they received a shooting report today, January 6, 2020, at 1:50 pm. As they say, someone shot at a residential building in Dubrava, in which, they explain, one adult was injured.

It is not yet known how old the injured person is, nor what the injuries are. The injured man was transported to the Clinical Hospital Center Zagreb, where he is being treated.

A part of the Južna Street in Dubrava where the shooting took place is currently blocked, and the police are on the ground. They have begun conducting an inspection and a criminal investigation to determine all the circumstances of the incident.

Južna Street becomes impassable, and the crowds are forming. Neighbors have come out to their windows and balconies and are waiting for further developments.

"Everything was calm, and then suddenly a shot was heard," neighbors told Večernji List.

Although the police have been warning for days that the use of pyrotechnics and firearms during the Christmas and New Year holidays can be fatal, their warnings do not fall on fertile ground. During New Year's Eve, five people were seriously injured due to the unprofessional handling of pyrotechnics and firearms. Some of them had their fingers amputated due to firecracker explosions.

Police later criminally reported several people across the country for firing firearms during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, recording it and posting the footage on social media. The investigation will show whether the shooting in Dubrava was the product of an inappropriate celebration of today's Three Kings holiday or something else.

More information about the incident will be known after the investigation finishes.

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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.

The coronavirus crisis is gripping public health as much as it is the global economy. With threats of mass lay-offs possible in Croatia alone over the next three months, it's difficult to see what road this unprecedented situation with the COVID-19 outbreak could go down.

One good thing that has come out of all of this, is that the good hearts of many have come to the surface. Many Croatian companies have done their bit to donate to those in need, even in times of financial worry and a standstill for a lot of businesses, primarily those operating within the Croatian tourism industry, the country's strongest economic branch.

Infobip, a wildly successful Croatian IT company, has also made generous donations. With Dukat, a company operating within the food sector, making sure Zagreb's more vulnerable citizens, shaken from the recent earthquakes as well as the pandemic, are taken care of.

These aren't the only companies stepping up in this time of great need, and as Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of March, 2020, the company Prvo plinarsko društvo (First Gas Company, or PPD), which operates within the Energia naturalis group (ENNA), recently generously donated seven respirators to KBC Zagreb to help them cope with weaker patients needing them during the coronavirus pandemic.

''The intention of the Energia naturalis group is to try to buy and donate a total of fifty respirators to Croatian hospitals, and the management of the group has directed its strength and abilities towards finding and purchasing them. The respirators purchased should be delivered to KBC Zagreb by the end of the week,'' a statement from the company read.

In addition to the measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect its own employees, the ENNA group is actively fighting the "corona crisis" here in Croatia.

''It certainly isn't easy to get hold of a respirator at the moment, but we are convinced it is possible. We're also sure that many individuals and companies are doing the best they can to help in the situation we all find ourselves in, and in this way, with our knowledge and capabilities, we're joining their efforts,'' the company stated.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for rolling information and updates on coronavirus in Croatia.