''Vaccines are very powerful weapon in the fight against diseases like this. Clinical studies for vaccines last from six to nine months. I don't believe we will have a vaccine [for coronavirus] before the end of this year,'' Krunoslav Capak said.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of April, 2020, Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, told N1 television that the coming weeks were crucial in regard to the further development of the coronavirus epidemic in Croatia.

"We have a lot of people in self-isolation, these people have been in contact with those who are sick [with coronavirus]. It's important for these people to remain in isolation, and not to have any new contacts. If they fall ill in the meantime, then their contacts will also be at high risk of contracting the disease. We're trying to create a buffer zone so that the disease doesn't spread any further,'' he said.

Croatia's strict anti-epidemic measures will not be lifted in the coming period.

"We're analysing the situation every day, but in the coming weeks, which I repeat, are going to be critical, we aren't planning on loosening up the measures," he added.

"We still have a lot of people in self-isolation, about 20,000 of them, many of them have been in contact with those who are sick and newly positive people are coming from that pool of people. It's very important that they respect the self-isolation measures so that new people don't fall ill. It's also very important that we don't give up now and that we reduce social contact as much as possible. If we manage to contain this, we will have a favourable epidemiological situation,'' Krunoslav Capak said. He then answered the question of how people in self-isolation are controlled.

"There are two ways in which that's done, either the patients report to their doctors and to epidemiologists, or they contact them. Those who develop symptoms suspected of being caused by COVID-19 should go for testing. It is very important that the contact between patients in self-isolation and their physician or an epidemiologist is only made occasionally. I have to mention that the police have a database of people who are in isolation and have the possibility to report any misdemeanor, depending on the nature of the crime,''

Croatia has an optimal number of tests. Is that true?

"It's very difficult to estimate what that number is. Some tested a lot so they failed to prevent the epidemic. The best example is Italy. Our doctor from Italy, Dr. Nela Srsen, said recently that the Italians were wrong. All those who were negative felt free, which doesn't mean that they can't develop COVID-19 the very next day,'' he said, explaining where Italy had gone wrong.

"It's a combination of everything. It was too late to introduce measures already when they had a massive epidemic in the north of the country. The mentality of the people also plays a big role in all this, it isn't good for citizens to behave nonchalantly, get together, go out for coffee, and that's what happened there,'' explained Krunoslav Capak.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is working hard to find a vaccine. When can we expect it?

"As you know, there are clinical vaccine trials going on in several places across the world. We can hope that they will prove to be good and safe. Vaccines are a very powerful weapon in the fight against diseases like this. Clinical studies of vaccines last from six to nine months. I don't believe we'll have a vaccine before the end of this year,''

There is a big rush for passes (propusnice). How are the [civil protection] headquarters handling it?

''The National Civil Protection Headquarters is trying make sure that what is essential to people's elementary lives isn't stopped, and it isn't trying to stand in the way of the economy. As for the epidemiological part - because of the movement of people that occurred at the time of the [Zagreb] earthquake, we introduced this measure, of course, with some exceptions. We aren't thinking of loosening up the measures on movement restriction at this point because the following weeks are crucial to curbing the spread of the coronavirus infection. After that, we'll analyse the situation and give priority to the measures introduced,'' Capak said.

In the end, Capak sent out a message to residents of Croatia:

"Be patient, listen to the staff's recommendations for a while longer. If the situation becomes favourable, we will certainly allow some of these measures to be removed to make it easier for people and families to function. Our goal is to curb infections, not to introduce measures and limit the functioning of people and families,'' he concluded.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for more on coronavirus in Croatia.

April 7, 2020 —  Need an "e-pass” to get around Croatia’s local travel restrictions? Find a hungry goat.

The Croatian government acknowledged citizens' growing frustration over limited movement by loosening requirements for e-passes, the increasingly ubiquitous licenses letting people roam far away from their permanent residence.

Over 500,000 passes have been issued so far, with 16,673 requests rejected and hundreds of thousands of large employers' applications still being processed. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said limits on travel and daily life will dissolve at a pace deemed fit by epidemiologists. Combined with medical personnel and others, close to a quarter of the nation's population will soon be free to ignore requirements they stay within their legally declared residence.

Those early restrictions on movements have contributed to Croatia's curve-flattening. Initially, passes were given for vital trips like a doctor’s appointment. The bureaucratic solution let “stay at home” rules remain in place while also letting residents keep vital obligations. Yet the system failed in several ways, especially for the elderly and those in small municipalities. 

The new rules effectively give local governments discretion when doling out passes, but no way to confirm a citizen's claims. Local officials wonder if the new e-Pass loopholes render past restrictions meaningless.

A Broken Apparatus

Various reports show residents were infuriated by an e-pass system riddled with bureaucratic hurdles and technological goofs.

The office of Ombudswoman Lora Vidović said complaints and questions about the passes range from the bizarre to stupefying. Pensioners living in a bank-less town needing permission to visit their local branch and withdraw funds.

One man complained to the ombudswoman the system denied him an e-pass to see his son, who lives in an adjacent municipality. 

Ditto adults with elderly parents, farmers who cannot reach their crops and islanders with off-shore agricultural property they’re unable to irrigate their plants.

The e-pass apparatus also ignores citizens without internet access or signed into the Croatian government’s e-Citizen system, according to Ivan Anušić, head of Osijek-Baranja county. The government believes the system itself may not be at fault.

The Tangled Municipal Web

Croatia’s complicated network of semi-autonomous local governments has gummed up the system with requests.

This nationwide web of municipalities lies at the core of annual calls for reform. These smaller units enjoy their own funnel of public funds and little oversight, often sprouting political patronage jobs for a small circle of insiders (the practice birthed the oft-used term uhljeb). 

Yet some municipalities are so miniscule, they lack essential services like medical facilities and pharmacies, or stores, banks and gas stations. This forces some citizens to request e-passes for a quick drive to a nearby to buy groceries or withdraw money at an ATM.

The Civil Protection Directorate yesterday found a novel solution: ignore municipal borders altogether by letting governments combine civil protection units.

Head of the Directorate and Interior Minister Davor Božinović said the Law on the Civil Protection System allows several units of local self-government to form a joint headquarters, a rule which could widen the radius in which residents can travel.

"This will make it easier for someone in a neighboring municipality to go to cultivate their field, or go to the post office,” Božinović said.

Once municipalities reach an agreement, the IT apparatus running the “e-pass” system will reflect the new borders. 

A map of Croatia's municipalities, as of 2020.

The rule comes after Rijeka’s Mayor Vojko Obersnel requested the national government nix e-passes for his city and its eight satellite municipalities. Residents found themselves marooned in the local fragments and seeking passes for banal trips.

Similar measures will take effect in Istria, where an alphabet soup of municipalities from the entire peninsula will merge. Locals will only need e-passes when leaving Istria altogether.

Got chickens?

The list of e-pass-worthy citizens now includes farmers, caretakers and owners of agricultural land. Local leaders worry the reigns came off completely — with claims of neglected crops and suffering livestock skyrocketing.

Some requests e-passes point to hungry chickens, engorged goats or helpless elderly relatives.

“Now, virtually anyone can ask for a pass if they write that they have arable land or some animals,” the head of Zadar’s Civil Protection Directorate Ante Babić told Zadarski List. He said some requests for e-passes included goat-milking and hungry as reasons. In another instance, adults sought an e-pass to care for parents — and their siblings did the same.

The new, relaxed rules combined with a tangled cadastral system leave authorities helpless in checking requests. Flustered officials, Babić said, now give passes based on blind faith and hope the applicant is honest.

“Control is actually impossible and you cannot check whether they really have a house and animals or not […] People abuse this system, and those passes are not only given to those who need it most,” he said.

“Virtually anyone who wants a pass will get it,” said. “People refer to anything and everything. We have cases where someone writes in his request that he has lost his job and cannot buy food, so he asks for a pass to go to the village for the winter. How can we tell if he has a house there and also check he doesn’t have a fever? But his reason is legitimate and we have to give him a pass. So now we are in a situation where practically everyone who requests it gets a pass.”

Babić said the Zadar directorate asked its national counterpart to intervene and clarify, though no changes appear on the horizon. But the head of the national directorate welcomed the changes and said they’d help people in self-isolation.

“The number of issued passes is large,” Božinović said at a press conference yesterday. “But the fact is that we are creating a base, we are working on creating a structure of rejected requests to see how many people among them have a self-isolation order. Those are the offenders, and most importantly, they are potentially dangerous to spread the infection.”

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of April, 2020, as of Monday, every eighth legal resident of the Republic of Croatia has been issued with an e-pass (e-propusnica), which is an official document with which he can leave his place of registered permanent residence under the current coronavirus measures. As of noon yesterday, 565,221 e-passes have been issued. They were mostly issued by employers.

It turns out that according to the February's staffing data, every third employee has a pass. However, it should be borne in mind that since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of employees in Croatia has decreased and it is quite realistic for every other worker to have a document with which they can leave their place of residence, according to a report from Vecernji list.

It seems that almost one million people who live in Croatia are free to move around, this is partially because medical staff holding ID cards issued by the competent chambers involved in preventing the spread of coronavirus do not have to obtain an e-pass, but they are required to have a Croatian Medical Chamber card, a membership card of the Croatian Chamber of Nurses, the Croatian Chamber of Pharmacists or a membership card ID card of the Croatian Chamber of Dental Medicine.

Passes are also not needed for members of the emergency services - firefighters, HGSS officers, or the Croatian Red Cross - when on duty and dressed in their respective uniforms.

However, there are also those who have been denied e-passes and 16,673 applications have been rejected for administrative reasons. Several thousand of those who are in self-isolation also wanted to get their hands on a pass, but coronavirus patients, coronavirus suspects and others in that situation are not allowed to complete the application process for obvious reasons.

There are no precise figures on just how many people who are fundamentelly not permitted to even apply for an e-pass have tried to do so, as an analysis is yet to be made of how many of them have received and still have an “active” order to stay at home and undergo fourteen days of self-isolation. There is also no current data on how many of those orders have now expired, or indeed how many holders of said orders have been fined for breaching them.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for all you need to know about coronavirus in Croatia.

ZAGREB, April 7, 2020 - After conducting on Monday a second video conference with Croatian medical experts from the country and abroad, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that from the very start Croatia had reacted very well in preventing the coronavirus from spreading and that any relaxation of restrictions should not be sudden.

Plenković said that in comparison to other countries, Croatia had reacted very well, with timely and fairly restrictive measures resulting in a slow spreading of the disease and a low fatality rate in the first few weeks of the epidemic.

He said that that the experts he talked to said that Croatia's strategy had been good from the very start compared with other, much richer countries that have a stronger research community and stronger centres and health systems and more funds available.

Plenković believes that it is necessary to continue with a policy that will not lead to any problems within the health system, "which means that we have to continue with the procurement of quality protective equipment and thank medical staff for their sacrifice as well as implement restrictive measures, adapting them to the needs of the Croatian economy."

"Our objective is for all relaxations of measures to be in line with epidemiological recommendations and estimates and for them not to be sudden, which could lead to an increase in the number of people infected," he said.

He announced that in the weeks ahead joint assessments would be made of the dynamic of relaxing measures but taking account of health.

Measures will be introduced to make it possible for everything that Croatian farmers and family farms produce is consumed in an appropriate way, and "for citizens to access farmers' markets but not the way they used to previously."

He confirmed that a decision to that effect could be made before Easter, saying that currently the government was working on the legal formulation of that decision.

He appealed to citizens to behave just as responsibly as they have until now even though warmer weather has been forecast and to be patient and trust the authorities and experts and follow the fundamental recommendation on social distance, because "self-discipline and responsibility are key."

Plenković pointed out one comment from today's meeting - that the risk of the disease is the greatest within the family and that that is where the disease spreads the fastest. "Hence it is truly important to be careful in everything you do so that there are no negative consequences."

He also commented on the latest surveys showing an increased trust in the authorities. "That type of trust is a signal that the government is managing this crisis appropriately and that it takes care of citizens' interests," he said.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, April 7, 2020 - Croatia reacted on time to the coronavirus pandemic and the Croatian army has been contributing significantly to the fight against that disease, Defence Minister Damir Krstičević said at a video conference of EU defence ministers, calling for the continuation of cooperation during the current crisis.

The video conference of EU defence ministers was chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josip Borrell and it was dedicated to the defence sector's contribution in dealing with the pandemic, Croatia's defence ministry said in a press release.

The ministers exchanged their experience at the national level regarding the army's support to civil institutions, underscoring that further cooperation and solidarity between EU member states was necessary.

All our resources are directed at the fight against the pandemic, Krstičević underscored.

"We began implementing measures for the health, security, education and economic sectors at a very early stage of the emergence of COVID-19," Krstičević said, adding that Croatian troops had erected a completely autonomous camp which can cater for 220 patients in record time.

Referring to the recent disastrous earthquake that struck Zagreb, Krstičević said that the army helped there too.

He underscored the need for further cooperation and solidarity between EU member states as well as for timely and coordinated measures to prevent the further escalation of the pandemic.

As a good example of cooperation Krstičević pointed at strategic transport, organised by the government to fly Croatian and German medical teams to NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence mission in Lithuania and the joint repatriation of Croatian, Albanian, Montenegrin and North Macedonian troops from Afghanistan.

More news about the Ministry of Defence can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 7, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has wished a speedy recovery to his British counterpart Boris Johnson, who was placed in the intensive care unit of a London hospital on Monday evening after contracting the COVID-19 virus.

"I wish a quick recovery to my friend @BorisJohnson. We all hope he recovers soon," Plenković wrote on his Twitter account.

"We stand together and united in our fight against the #COVID19 and our resolve to protect the health of our citizens," he added.

Johnson's health condition deteriorated on Monday afternoon after which he was transferred to the intensive care unit of St Thomas' Hospital. He was hospitalised on Sunday evening after having the symptoms of the coronavirus infection for about ten days.

More news about relations between Croatia and Great Britain can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 7, 2020 - The number of policyholders with the Croatian Pension Insurance Fund (HZMO) fell in March from the previous month, indicating that the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic has resulted in lay-offs and that employers did not hire seasonal workers as in the previous years.

The number of policyholders decreased by 12,423, or 0.8%, to 1,529,905. The largest monthly decrease, of 6.4%, was recorded in the tourism and hospitality industry.

The number of insured persons also fell in other important categories, including the manufacturing industry (-0.3%) and trade (-0.9%).

"Despite the pre-crisis expectations that the start of the spring months and the Easter holidays, influenced by seasonal factors, will formally mark the start of the tourist (pre)season and the simultaneous rise in the number of policyholders, the monthly fall in the total number of policy holders reflects the first obstacles and difficulties that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to the Croatian labour market," Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said in an analysis of the HZMO data.

RBA analysts expect that the usual seasonal trends relating to the tourist season will be weaker than in the previous years.

Compared with March 2019, the number of policyholders increased by 8,646 or 0.6%. The increase was mainly driven by increases in the number of policyholders from the information and communications industry (+7.4%), construction (+5.8%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (+3.9%).

On the other hand, decreases were recorded in the manufacturing industry (-1.3%) and tourism and hospitality (-8.4%).

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of April, 2020, the Croatian Government's rescue package has many measures related to the tourism industry, which is Croatia's strongest economic branch and is most affected by the coronavirus crisis. The measures include job preservation, financial and administrative burdens, wage benefits and tax breaks, RTL reports.

Nonetheless, Croatian tourism professionals are in awe, especially with regard to Croatia's very many private renters, and almost half of them think they will not be able to support their families without their usual tourist rental income.

Otherwise, we would not be able to take so much as a peek at Gordana's apartments in Crikvenica as of the beginning of April, because they would be full of readily paying tourists.

"We get cancellations almost every day, from now until June the 15th, everything has been cancelled, whatever we had. Otherwise, we should have entered the full season from April the 6th. We had almost 70 percent of the capacities filled,'' says Gordana Derossi, the owner of the Crikvenica apartments.

Last year, Kvarner enjoyed the best tourist Easter in the past three years, and it was believed that this positive trend would continue this year. Opatija makes for a sad image too, with its empty promenades. Private renters are now beginning to pass over from feelings of concern to fear, with their bookings dropping by as much as 50 percent. However, they do say that the Croatian Government is doing its job so far with the introduced coronavirus measures.

"I didn't use the tax deferral measures, but I do welcome the 50 percent less tourist tax," Derossi says. However, in March alone, a 70 percent drop in arrivals was calculated, with a 50 percent slash in overnight stays.

"Cumulatively, these figures are slightly lower, however, this is a direct consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, and I believe that unfortunately, in such an atmosphere, we'll continue with this sort of tourist traffic, which is practically non-existent at the moment, throughout April and May," said Kristijan Stanicic, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ).

Although HTZ is trapped in terms of Croatia's promotion on the foreign market, they remain present on social networks, and jobs in tourism have been more or less secured by the recently introduced government anti-epidemic measures.

"These are very important for the tourism sector, given that tourism will be the most affected sector in Croatia this year," Stanicic said.

Because the season is lost, the consequences will be felt for years. Tourism accounts for more than 20 percent of Croatia's gross domestic product, and it seems that the coronavirus effect is far from over yet.

Make sure to follow our dedicated section for all you need to know about coronavirus in Croatia.