August 24, 2021 - How is the 2021 Safe Stay in Croatia label being used around the country? Tourism workers chime in. 

Jutarnji List spoke to tourism workers around Croatia about using the 2021 Safe Stay in Croatia label. 

"When we started implementing measures to protect guests and staff from Covid-19 last year, we were initially afraid of how they would accept it. Still, they are on vacation, and we set some rules for them. It turned out, however, that the reactions of the guests were extremely positive, after all, and they want to feel safe and protected on vacation," said Marina Josipović, the owner of the Park Hotel in Makarska. They also boast several international safety certificates, which prove that they take compliance with measures and safety very seriously.

"Upon arrival, we measure the temperature of all guests. If it is slightly elevated, we repeat the measurement after some time because guests come from the outside heat, so we give them time to cool down. There is plexiglass at the reception; everything is often disinfected; we have reduced the number of deck chairs by the pool to allow distance and limit the number of visitors in the wellness area. We are cautious when serving food and drinks," Marina Josipović adds, emphasizing that more than 70 percent of hotel employees have been vaccinated.

Protecting guests and employees from infection is their main motivation, just like other tourism entities that have received the now recognizable Safe Stay in Croatia label since this spring.

Krešimir Ledić, the cult Zagreb restaurant Balon owner, points out that they did not make protocols to satisfy the form but to make their guests feel safe and comfortable.

"We acted according to all protocols prescribed by the Ministry, and even more. Masks, disinfectants, space between tables, air purifiers... We are lucky to have a large, spacious terrace where guests can be away from others and feel comfortable," says Ledić, and adds that 95 percent of his employees are vaccinated.

Kopački Rit Nature Park has been proud to hold the Safe Stay label since the first day of the program. The Nature Park's department head for the reception of visitors and education, Ružica Marušić, points out that visitors react well and that refusing to follow the rules is really rare.

"We got the Safe Stay label easily because we take care of safety beforehand, and more than was prescribed. For example, all of our employees wear masks because they come in contact with many people, and everyone is vaccinated except those who have medical contraindications. Masks are mandatory for visitors indoors and on boats, and if they do not have their own, we will provide one for them. As a result, people react well, the rules are clearly marked, and everyone is more comfortable when they feel safe," says Marušić and adds that a lot of people come to the park aware of the responsibility for both visitors and their employees.

The same is pointed out by Ružica Božić Cerovac, the owner of the Chocolate Museum in Zagreb, who says that the hygiene standards were at the highest possible level even before receiving the Safe Stay label.

"Employees wear masks, keep their distance, ventilate, make sure that no more than ten people are in one room at a time ... We are proud that no visitor is endangered at any time," says the owner of the museum, which is a favorite attraction in Zagreb.

The Zadar adventure tourism agency Feral Tours owner, Iva Bencun, shows how the crisis has changed tourism. Activities in nature and active holidays are more in demand than ever, and with it, all booking and all arrangements now take place online.

"We work with small groups, masks are worn in transfers, everything is regularly disinfected, but most programs take place outdoors, so in that sense, there was no need for some large adjustments," says Bencun.

Research shows that most tourists prioritize the safety and cleanliness of the space they will stay in when choosing a destination. Today, guests are primarily looking for safety: a safe stay, the care of the hosts about hygiene standards, and the safety that they will not be infected during their vacation.

Listening to these needs, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, with the support of the Croatian National Tourist Board and tourism partners, launched the Safe Stay in Croatia project earlier this year, which devised protocols of business and treatment of users in all tourism and tourism-related activities, all with one goal - a safe stay in Croatia. As a result, almost 17,000 applications have been approved since the start of the project.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to the Republic of Croatia, including test centres, vaccination points, and travel and border rules, make sure to check out and bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

ZAGREB, 23 May, 2021 - The state secretary at the Health Ministry, Silvio Bašić, said in Zadar on Sunday the Zadar archipelago would soon get three emergency medical service vessels.

"Besides the three vessels, Zadar County will also get one vehicle, a mobile surgery and pharmacy for the inhabitants of the remotest parts of the hinterland," Bašić said.

The county's public health institute will also receive a HRK 2.5 million molecular diagnostics device, a Viper LT, whereby the institute will become a reference centre for 12 Southeast European countries.

County prefect Božidar Longin said the first 12-metre-long water ambulance would arrive in a month and that the second vessel would be a pharmacy delivering medicines to remote islands.

The third vessel will be able to sail in all weather conditions and is intended for the remotest islands in the county, he added.

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ZAGREB, April 29, 2020 - Minister Vili Beroš said on Tuesday evening that the healthcare system was not overburdened with the number of COVID-19 patients who needed hospital treatment and could resume performing elective surgeries and the postponed diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Commenting the current state of affairs in the health system, the minister told the Nova TV commercial broadcaster that the situation allowed for the gradual reactivation of all services.

He said that the number the personnel available would be sufficient for the gradual reactivation of the system.

Beroš informed that five employees in the Split hospital had been diagnosed with the virus lately and that nine patients had been placed in isolation.

The centres for transfusion medicine in Croatia have sufficient blood supplies and are ready to meet the needs of hospitals once they restore elective surgeries which have been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the head of the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine (HZTM), Irena Jukić, said on on 20 April.

The institute and centres had enough supplies of blood and blood products for transfusion during operations performed by the hospitals.

"We have enough supplies when elective surgeries start to be performed," Jukic told Hina last week.

More health news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, April 9, 2020 - Croatian Health Minister Vili Beroš on Thursday called on citizens to stay home during the coming Easter holidays and said that the key to success in fighting the coronavirus epidemic was in their hands.

"The key to success lies in our hands. During these holidays it is more important than ever to stay home. For a healthier future we must act now and we must act decisively," the Minister said at a cabinet meeting while presenting activities taken to curb the epidemic in the past week.

He underscored the additional efforts made to expose fake news on the coronavirus and their consequences.

"False claims about the coronavirus pandemic can put human lives at risk and they further provoke anxiety and fear. Therefore, I call for utmost caution and relying solely on official sources of information," Beroš said.

He also said that there were 1,518,719 infected persons globally, with 88,502 fatalities and 330,589 recoveries.

In Croatia, a total of 13,125 persons have been tested, of whom 1,343 tested positive since 25 February. The percentage of those who have tested positive is 10.11%, Beroš said.

He also presented a graphic illustrating the trends for the number of infected persons in Croatia since the outbreak, which shows that the increase in the number of cases is still linear and that there is no significant increase.

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ZAGREB, March 31, 2020 - Twenty-seven COVID-19 patients are currently on ventilators, Croatia has 803 ventilators and 250 new ones will be imported gradually, Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Monday.

There are offers of ventilators from the East but the machines must be inspected first, he said at a press conference of the national civil protection authority.

"Our fate is in our hands. The number of patients can be lower by the day. It's all up to us, to me, to us all," Beroš said.

Persons ordered to self-isolate must notify sanitary inspectors or epidemiologists when self-isolation measures end.

The terms under which a patient can be discharged from hospital to isolate at home are being reviewed, said Alemka Markotić, head of Zagreb's Fran Mihaljević Infectious Diseases Hospital.

Initially, more patients were young or middle aged and they recovered more quickly, she said, adding that those infected "are positive for coronavirus about 24 days and they will be under supervision 28 days because they aren't expected to be positive after that period."

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, March 7, 2020 - Another person in Croatia has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of the people infected to 12, the national civil protection authority said on Saturday morning.

*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.

The newly-infected person is a close family contact of the second person who tested positive for COVID-19 in the northern city of Varaždin, the Fran Mihaljević Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb confirmed. This latest case has been the fourth case of the positive test in that northern city.

Apart from Varaždin, in Zagreb there have been three patients to date and five in Rijeka.

Last Thursday, Health Minister Vili Beroš declared a danger from an infectious diseases epidemic as an administrative measure at the recommendation of the Croatian Public Health Institute. The measure will enable the minister to reallocate people and equipment in the healthcare system as necessary.

According to the data provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), on Friday there were over 5,500 cases that have tested positive in the 27 EU member-states, Great Britain and in the European Economic Area countries.

Both Croatia and the European Union currently have sufficient resources to respond to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, however, it remains to be seen how long this crisis will last, Croatian Minister Beroš said in Brussels on Friday after an extraordinary meeting of the European Union's health ministers over the COVID-19 virus.

More coronavirus can be found in the Lifestyle section.

*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.

ZAGREB, March 5, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beroš submitted a report on the epidemiological situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, saying that the situation in the country was satisfactory given that only ten people were infected.

*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.

"Of the 251 people tested to date, 10 are positive for now: three in Zagreb, five in Rijeka and two in Varaždin. This epidemiological picture is promising and satisfactory because there are only three hotspots. These are imported cases and their contacts were quickly detected and placed under supervision by epidemiological services," the minister said.

Beroš noted that the patients in Zagreb and Rijeka were infected by one imported patient, while in Varaždin there are two isolated cases of imported patients. The ratio of people who tested positive to the number of those tested is 3.98 percent, he added.

The minister said that the epidemiological situation was not that serious as to require closing schools, and that a number of other measures were ready for activation if necessary.

"If the situation escalates, we will respond," Beroš said, adding that alternative ways of conducting school classes were ensured.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stressed that no decision had been made to suspend school classes. "We are monitoring the situation and everything we have done so far is sober, rational, transparent and informative, and no other measures are in place. It is important that the public knows this," he added.

Beroš said that there were plans to conduct classes online but that this was just a theoretical possibility for now. "I hope this crisis lasts as briefly as possible and that warm weather will lead to the epidemic abating. There's no need to alarm the public," he said, urging caution at public events.

Beroš said there have been no plans for now to cancel events as part of the Croatian presidency of the European Union. He added that the authorities were implementing the planned epidemiological measures to contain the infection and called on everyone to follow the recommendations from the authorities and to exercise caution.

A total of 95,484 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, of whom 15,054 outside China. The death toll has reached 3,286, including 271 outside China.

"In Europe, which has seen a noticeable rise in the number of cases, 4,370 people have been infected and 114 of them have died. The hardest-hit countries are Italy with 3,089 cases, France with 285, Germany with 262 and Spain with 228 cases," Beroš said.

He said that the national civil protection authority was meeting on a daily basis and that all government departments were involved.

All health institutions and private health workers have been advised to postpone providing health tourism services to people from areas affected by the coronavirus. All people who have visited those areas, namely China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Iran and northern Italy, are asked not to attend public gatherings in the interest of public health, Beroš said.

He announced that EU health ministers were meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss the measures being implemented by member states and agree a strategy in countering the outbreak.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

*Follow this page for updates from Total Croatia News on the coronavirus in Croatia. Contact numbers for epidemiologists, travel advisories and measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus can be found here.

ZAGREB, February 26, 2020 - A second case of coronavirus infection was confirmed in Croatia overnight. The person was in close contact with the person identified as the first case, and a third person who was in contact has initially tested negative, the head of the Fran Mihaljević hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotić, said on Wednesday.

The persons infected are exhibiting mild symptoms, they receive the necessary medication and no complications are expected, Markotić told a press conference at the national civil protection headquarters.

"We have started to administer an antiviral drug that is otherwise used in HIV cases because it might be effective," she added.

Media say that the second person to contract the coronavirus in Croatia is the brother of the young man who tested positive on Tuesday. The young man works with the Ericsson Nikola Tesla company in Zagreb. Last week he had been to Milan, Italy with his girlfriend to watch a Champions League match; she tested negative.

A total of 72 people in Croatia have been tested for coronavirus so far.

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that at this point he was satisfied with the situation in the country. "We have two confirmed cases of infection, and all the others have tested negative so far."

"This is just the beginning, and we have sufficient medical supplies. I repeat, this disease doesn't pose a significant threat, it's like the common flu. More than 80 percent of the patients have mild symptoms," the minister said.

He called on the public to follow instructions from medical authorities.

State-owned power provider HEP confirmed on Wednesday that the second person diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in Croatia is their employee. "We can confirm that one of the persons confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus is our employee posted at HEP Group headquarters in Zagreb. He was not at work yesterday, and about 15 employees assumed to have been in close contact with him have been notified today not to come to work or have been sent home," HEP said in response to a query from Hina.

The company said that the necessary measures had been taken at the headquarters to protect the safety and health of the employees and visitors in line with instructions from the national coronavirus crisis management team.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 24, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday met with the Health Ministry's coronavirus crisis management team, who informed him of the measures that had been undertaken so far and plans for preventing the spread of the novel virus, a government press release said.

Also discussed was the current situation regarding the spread of the coronavirus in neighbouring Italy.

Earlier on Sunday, Health Minister Vili Beroš confirmed that two patients admitted to the clinical hospital centre in Rijeka were not infected with the virus. The patients are an Italian national and a Croatian woman from the northern coastal resort town of Rovinj who has visited Padua, and both are in good condition.

There are no cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia, the Croatian Public Health Institute said on Sunday. To date, 18 people have undergone laboratory tests and all were negative.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 78,833 people worldwide have tested positive for the infection and 2,463 have died. In Europe, 121 people are currently infected.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 22, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beroš on Friday adopted a decision to establish a quarantine unit as a preventative safety measure to protect citizens from any possible threat of the coronavirus, at the Croatian Institute for Public Health's recommendation, the ministry said.

The quarantine unit has been set up at the Dr Fran Mihaljević Infectious Diseases Hospital in Zagreb for anyone who is suspected of or is determined to have been in touch with infected or possibly infected persons while spending in time in areas considered to be the source of the disease.

Quarantine will last in line with health assessments. The decision enters into force today, the ministry underscored.

"To date, luckily, there aren't any people infected with the coronavirus in Croatia. However, we do not want to leave anything to chance in the protection of Croatian citizens from this health threat. The experience of neighbouring Italy and some other communities demand us to play it extra safe and, in addition to everything undertaken so far, I have decided to establish a quarantine unit as an additional preventative measure," said Minister Beroš.

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