ZAGREB, March 12 (Hina) - Croatia has been exempted from the decision by US President Donald Trump on introducing a ban on most travel from Europe due to not being a Schengen Area member state.

The ban takes effect on Friday at midnight, it will last for 30 days and will affect the 26 countries of the passport-free Schengen Area in Europe.

In those states there have been most confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection outside mainland China.

By March 11 there were 17,442 cases of infection and 711 cases of death, and the diseases was exported to 53 states.

The free movement of people among member states of the Schengen area impedes efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Trump said in the decision posted on the White House's website.

Among those countries there is no border control, which makes it easier for the COVID-19 to spread. Croatia, which is not a member of the area, so far has 19 positive cases and no victims of that infectious disease.

It is recommended that Americans planning travel to Croatia should not go if they are ill, should wash their hands more often and should take additional effort to monitor their health 14 days after returning to the US, the instructions by the White House state.

America's well-being always comes first, Trump said in a address from the Oval Office.

In addition to Croatia, countries exempted from Trump's ban are the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania.

The ban concerns anyone who has been to the Schengen Area 14 days before planning to enter the US.

American citizens, as well as holders of some visas and people with family ties to American citizens or to those permanently resident in the US, are exempt from the ban.

Trump made the decision after the US had begun to feel negative effects of the pandemic, ranging from disruptions in the financial market to sport events being cancelled and schools being closed.

On Wednesday the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the USA reached 37, 29 of which were in the US state of Washington in the Northwest of the US, while the number of cases of the infection exceeded 1,300, data by John Hopkins University show.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section

ZAGREB, March 12, 2020 - "The Truth about the Istanbul Convention" NGO filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday after the Constitutional Court dismissed its complaints about signature verification and obstruction in certain areas of gathering signatures for a referendum on the Convention.

"We consider the opinion of the Constitutional Court to be completely inadequate, even wrong, as confirmed by the dissenting opinion of Judge Miroslav Šumanović. The Constitutional Court either did not address our key complaints or dismissed them without a valid explanation," the group says in a leaflet which its activists handed out to reporters outside the government offices.

"We expect the European Court of Human Rights ((ECHR) to consider the situation in Croatia, which basically set a precedent. I don't think that it happened anywhere else that the ruling elites actually worked against their own citizens and their constitutional rights to a referendum," the coordinator of the initiative, Kristina Pavlović, told the press.

Asked what they were going to do if the ECHR told them they were wrong, Pavlović said that they had been fighting their legal battle for a year or two already. "We believe we have the arguments, the arguments are on our side, and we will fight as long as we can," she said.

More news about Istanbul Convention can be found in the Politics section.

March 12, 2020 - Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the international Qatar Airways tournament in Doha, featuring Croatia, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium, will not be played this month, the Croatian Football Federation announced.

HNS reports that the Croatian football team was due to play in a friendly tournament in Qatar's capital Doha at the end of March and measure its strength against the national teams of Switzerland and Portugal as part of preparations for the 2020 European Championships.

However, given the emerging health circumstances around the world, the tournament was canceled. In addition to Croatia, Switzerland and Portugal, the current top-ranked national team by FIFA was due to perform - Belgium.

The Croatian Football Federation will subsequently inform the public of the plans of the first team during the national team break.

A few days ago, Qatar authorities imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers arriving or staying in Italy for the past two weeks, after which they closed schools and universities, so a tournament delay was expected.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic hoped to have two quality matches in Doha, and planned to give all players a chance and try out some systems.

“The plan is to give everyone a chance and to see the condition of all players, especially those who have been injured. The most important thing for me is to have seven days of  being together because there won't be much time later,”  the coach said Monday after releasing the player list for Doha.

This news comes after the Croatian Football Federation announced that all Croatian league games in the country would be played without fans until March 31. 

“Taking into account the emerging circumstances regarding the epidemic of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, today the leading people of the HNS and the relevant bodies of the Federation have re-analyzed the current situation and decided that all matches in competitions under the jurisdiction of the HNS will be played without spectators until March 31.

The new measure applies to the HT First League, Croatian Cup, 2. HNL, 3. HNL, 1. HNLŽ, 2. HNLŽ, 1. HMNL, 2. HMNL and all youth leagues under the auspices of HNS, as well as the upcoming UEFA qualifying matches that take place in Croatia.

In these competitions, only teams with their staff, senior management and officials of clubs and HNS, technical staff and a certain number of media representatives will be able to attend the matches until further notice, with all the usual measures for organizing matches.

The HNS also recommends that all county associations take the same measure in competitions under their jurisdiction.

As before, the HNS will closely monitor the development of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic and, if necessary, determine other measures to which the football family and the public will be informed in due time. The decision shall enter into force immediately and shall be valid until March 31 or the end of the representative break. The Federation will make a timely decision to continue or discontinue this measure, taking into account developments, recommendations from public health institutions, and considering, above all, the health of spectators, football players and all other actors in football.

You can find the Croatia Football Federation's statement in Croatian here.

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

The Croatian demographic crisis is continuing to bite just as hard as it has ever done, with more and more Croatian youth abandoning the country and taking advantage of Croatia's EU membership for a better life and more economic stability in Western Europe, many feel the government has simple forgotten about them.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 12th of March, 2020, in the Croatian capital of Zagreb at an EU conference, fifty experts discussed both opportunities and challenges.

On Wednesday, Zagreb hosted a two-day meeting where the topic of not only Croatian youth, but youth from across the bloc was discussed. The meeting of the leaders of the Youth Authorities' Administrations in Zagreb is the third in a series of such meetings of the presiding countries of Romania, Finland and Croatia, and a symbolic handover of the presidency to the German delegation was organised at the end of the meeting.

Within the main theme of the meeting, officials discussed the challenges facing today's generations of young people, including disillusioned Croatian youth, and the need to ensure equal life opportunities for all young people. Although the topic of youth in rural and remote areas is one of the priorities of Croatia's EU Council Presidency, the discussion also included other current issues.

Otherwise, the three-day conference entitled ''Youth Opportunities in Rural Areas - How to Ensure Rural Sustainability in EU Countries'' organised by the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy brought together youth representatives from EU member states, delegates of the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, national and international youth organisations and researchers and scientists, as well as youth decision makers.

In her opening speech, Vesna Bedekovic, Minister for Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, stressed that Croatian youth and others across the EU living in rural and remote areas needed to be recognised as a priority of Croatia's EU Council Presidency because of the growing inequality between young people living in the countryside and those living in cities.

She added that the desire is to encourage young people to participate in democratic life, to increase their involvement in society and to ensure that as many young people as possible contribute to the formulation of youth policies. The conclusions of the conference will serve to shape the documents regarding future youth policies.

For more on Croatian youth and the current demographic crisis, follow our dedicated politics page.

As far as Croatian companies are concerned, the most important thing for them is to ensure liquidity. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 12th of March, 2020, Finance Minister Maric made a guest appearance yesterday on RTL to talk about responses to the economic crisis that could be caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

''I understand, but with all due respect, I think that these are moments for constructive criticism, for us to put all our heads together, which is the message of today's meeting. I think a timely dialogue has been launched,'' Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said during his appearance on RTL Direkt.

"Everything the headquarters [for civil protection] is doing is within existing means. The situation is serious, but at this point, based on all the parameters, nothing has happened that would insist on taking an extreme measure. The ''zero'' goal is people's health, and then the first goal is to preserve jobs and liquidity for our companies,'' Maric pointed out.

''A year and a half ago, five billion kuna was paid out to citizens. We did something long before the crisis came so that employers can pay more to their workers,'' Minister Maric said.

Schools are closing in Istria on Friday, raising the question of what will happen to parents who will not be able to work because they will have to stay home with their child. "We had a similar topic a few months ago and at that time, as parents, we had to deal with it in one way or another," Maric said, alluding to the teachers' strike.

Increasingly, one of the possible measures for the public is the shortening of the working week.

"It's one of the things we can talk about, but we're not specifically talking about it today. Employers are first concerned with liquidity. From the point of view of preserving the workplace, shortening working hours would be possible in the next step if things became further complicated,'' noted Maric.

Make sure to follow our politics page for more.

March the 12th, 2020 - If you've been following us since the COVID-19 outbreak began, we've been translating and transmitting the musings of prominent and highly cited Croatian scientist Igor Rudan. Rudan is an extremely highly educated individual who has a vast knowledge of coronaviruses.

We bring you his latest statement, posted on Facebook, translated into English in full below:

''I was pleased to see today that my namesake, Igor Stagljar, has decided to stop making press statements about COVID-19, given the psychosis we're currently in. It's interesting that a leading world scientist in Toronto, such as Igor Stagljar, doesn't feel specialised enough to write about this topic. It's worth thinking about it a bit.

Yesterday, however, I received more than thirty requests for interviews from all over former Yugoslavia, because the article in Index.hr, regardless of its extreme length, has gone viral from Kranjska Gora to Gevgelija in the past 48 hours. It now has over 6,400 Facebook shares and is crawling slightly towards 200,000 views. Respect, Matija Babic, for giving it that level of exposure.

Let's think about this for a moment too: people across the former state [ex Yugoslavia] are being educated voluntarily and massively about something scientific. I'm pleased with this, of course, so I have nothing more to add through any interviews. If I have anything new to convey that could help and save people's lives, I'll write it here, so feel free to continue sharing it further.

Your reaction to my post yesterday "Panic, but in a moral way" and the messages I got in my inbox convinced me that there are still enough people in Croatia for whom it's worth clarifying things occasionally, so thank you all. Admittedly, I will no longer be able to be regular with these posts anymore, I'm back at work. Among other things, I'm editing the current issue of the Journal of Global Health on COVID-19. A dozen excellent new scientific papers have arrived, more than half of them from China, so I'm preparing a pandemic conference for the international press here in Edinburgh in one week or so.

For Croatia, I will occasionally comment on details that few people can intuitively understand unless they've specialised in this field. The role of the occasional event commentator isn't a problem for me. Moreover, I have agreed with Drazen Klaric to continue to do so from now on for my "mother ship'' - Vecernji list, which always has the right of priority for me because it taught me to read. I managed to come to terms with Drazen about conditions that aren't too stressful for me, so I will only write for one Croatian medium, and a day later I will share those posts here on Facebook.

Now let's raise the level from which we look at everything that is going on, to show you how depressing most of the discussions currently are in Croatia, and especially the division into the camps "this is a new plague" and "this is just a flu". I called this post "contrast is the mother of clarity." It will try to explain the issues that are VERY relevant to those in power who must make unprecedented political decisions in the next 48 hours.

Many wonder how I can be so laid back when I write and talk about this pandemic. But it's like someone who professionally demining minefields marvels leisurely as he strolls through them. He knows a bit about demining, while you, walking alone through a minefield, will think that every second is going to be your last. A similar thing is happening here now.

An epidemiologist is not afraid of an epidemic because he knows that any epidemic can be effectively suppressed, it's only a matter of drastic measures. That's what I said in my initial press statements - if the situation gets worse, we have at least a few more safety nets that we can activate. Today I will explain what I meant by that, because the time has come for that.

So, if it wanted to, Croatia could become the "world champion" in the fight against COVID-19. In less than two months, we could declare Croatia a coronavirus-free zone. The total number of cases would probably not exceed 1,000, and the death toll would indeed be very small. And that's why all the debate about the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and the flu has been aroused, because that's not what an epidemiologist primarily cares about. It is important for the epidemiologist to curb the epidemic. Any epidemic will be on a safe path towards extinction when every infected person infects on average less than one healthy person. Also, it will be on the safe path of exponential spread when every infected person infects, on average, MORE than one healthy person.

Without anti-epidemic measures, this new coronavirus spreads from every infected person to at least 2.2 new healthy subjects, predominantly in the incubation phase, while the infected person doesn't yet show any symptoms. All one has to do is reduce that number to below 1.0 and the epidemic will slowly be extinguished, which can be achieved by strict quarantine.

Read that again, because that's the key thing for epidemiologists. Otherwise, it could be said that rabies is "much more dangerous than the flu" because 100 percent of those infected with it die, and in a much worse way. But for the epidemiologist, it doesn't matter, because the last indigenous rabies case in Croatia was probably recorded in 1964. And for all hunters who are bitten by a rabid boar, fox or dog, immunoprophylaxis can be easily performed, so the epidemiologist knows what to do. So, it's already starting to go that way with coronavirus. We now know that we can suppress it with strict quarantine.

For an epidemiologist, more dangerous is the disease from which more people will die this year, no matter what symptoms they have before they die, they're not so concerned with that. And if we really want to, we can suppress and control coronavirus through strict quarantines, as the Chinese did for one sixth of the world's population, with fewer than 3,200 deaths currently per one billion and four hundred million people.

So, if Croatia were to decide today that it wanted to be the "world champion" in the fight against coronaviruses, it would have to apply the following measures to prevent the spread of the virus - we'll call it "extreme left and planned" measures. It should:

- completely close and control all borders, preventing anyone from entering and exiting;
- all Croatian citizens wishing to return to Croatia should be received but be quarantined for at least 30 days before being released to their homes (this is the longest incubation recorded);
- order everyone to stay in their houses and flats for the next two months (during which time all infected people would become ill and infect other people, until the virus no longer had anyone to transfer to and would thus disappear);
- only self-service shops and an absolute minimum of public services (heating plants, power plants, telecommunications, TV and radio) would operate;
- allow only the youngest member of the household to go to the self-service once every three days (the youngest, because children have the lowest risk of dying), wearing a mask and gloves, and only if they have no symptoms;
- arrange a neighbour to go and pick up things for all elderly people and then supply that person with a mask and gloves;
- almost all patients would be treated by mobile medical teams coming to households with portable respirators; efforts should be made at all costs to avoid bringing infected persons to hospitals, so as not to cause hospital outbreaks, which would have a much higher rate of death than community outbreaks;
- banks, mobile operators, and others should be instructed not to charge loan installments during those two months.

Here, with such radical measures and completely impermeable borders, Croatia would get rid of coronavirus probably within two months, given the current situation, with a truly minimal number of deaths. It's absolutely crucial to prevent the introduction of coronaviruses into non-infectious wards. This was the main cause of the horrific numbers [of those dying] from the outbreak of the epidemics in Wuhan and Lombardy.

However, like any interesting story, this one has its own unexpected twist. The consequences of such drastic measures for the national economy would be catastrophic. Two lost months of work, to become virus free before anything else, sometime in mid-May. Just in time for the tourist season. But the problem is that others would not have succeeded by then. That is why we'd still not be able to welcome anyone to Croatia. And so, the agony for the economy would continue all summer long.

And because of the catastrophe for the economy, the number of unemployed and illiquid people will increase, people will turn to alcoholism, be depressed, suffer from insomnia, marriages will fall apart, cancer and cardiovascular mortality rates will rise. Finally, those rescued from coronaviruses will suffer from diseases that will result from a new wave of poverty and recession. Only, these diseases and deaths will not happen in front of the cameras and nobody will blame those in power for them. And for literally every single coronavirus death - they will.

If you've followed all this by now, you'll understand that in this scenario, both outcomes are, in fact, bad. But by curbing the epidemic, government officials will appear more competent, and no one will later blame them for perhaps more deaths and problems that will later arise as a result of a recession.

Another extreme approach could be called "extremely neoliberal". At the moment, Donald Trump may be intensely thinking about it, but probably at least some other countries have it. Specifically, the virus can be allowed to spread freely. In doing so, as few people would be tested for the virus to minimise the number of deaths attributable to the coronavirus, especially among very old people. It would come to, perhaps, to a death rate of up to 1 percent among all those infected, but it would save the economy and avoid that "subsequent wave" of deaths. Because in this extreme scenario, mostly older people would die. This would, from some radically neoliberal point of view, even "unburden" pension funds and the health system. Many people in the most productive age for society, who would otherwise be the majority victims of the recession, would be saved.

The problem with this approach, however, is that there should be accuracy in estimating how many people will die, that is, to gamble with the certainty that scientists have in the rate of death from a virus in the community. I estimate that it is 0.5 to 1 percent, which puts it just outside the margins around which such an approach can be considered, and that the death toll from the epidemic roughly corresponds to the estimated number of post-recession deaths.

It's possible that Trump is currently awaiting reports from American soil about these death rates and wants to have as much security in them as possible. This is like a chess game with China for him. But he came across an unforeseen obstacle, which is that with this strain of the virus in Italy, it seems like something is wrong. Perhaps that's why Trump ordered the suspension of Europeans' entry into the US today, with the exception of the British.

He may have a plan that makes him look smarter than anyone, but he knows he needs to be sure that "their" virus in the US kills less than 1 percent of those infected, with the potential to gamble on the possibility of the virus disappearing in late spring. But it bothers him, like all of us, that no one is sure of the death rate for this ''Italian'' virus. So, things are a bit more complicated than most Croatian experts on Facebook think.

Trump's biggest problem, however, is the media and the public reaction. And the worst possible choice is to hesitate between these two extremes, so deciding to "not act" and letting the virus spread greatly, but when people start to die, under pressure from the public and the media, the introduction of quarantine is too late. Because, then, it would be a disaster for both the economy and for public health. A lot of people would die and the quarantines would last much longer after such a decision, until the virus disappeared.

I've already estimated for Croatia that the "extreme left and planned" approach would immediately and now be able to stem the epidemic in our country, maybe only up to a thousand cases and with a small number of deaths, if everything went perfectly according to plan - this is the ideal, "best case scenario'' for Croatia. However, over time, several thousand people would later die indirectly as a result of the economic recession. They would probably be middle-aged and older, and would be saved from coronavirus by perhaps the same number of average elderly people. The economy would be put into reverse, but the media would rate the moves of those in power favourably.

On the other hand, the "extreme neoliberal" approach of allowing the virus to freely spread would be met with strong condemnation by the media and the public in Croatia. Thousands of people could die from the epidemic, but life would go on. Instead of about 60,000 deaths in 2020, Croatia would have about 70,000 deaths. But only on condition that we've accurately estimated the death rate of the virus and that nothing goes unforeseen.

The decision of Croatia's ruling bodies, but also those of other countries, will be somewhere between these two extreme approaches - rigorous quarantine and a complete failure to act. I think this second extreme is becoming an increasingly unlikely choice because of such an intense media focus on the pandemic. This is why many European countries are now looking at each other and waiting for what and when to do it, because it's not an easy decision.

I hope that you now understand what the current issues are which are important to people who have to make decisions over the next two or three days that will determine the lives of all of us over the coming months. Two scenarios, thirty hours. Like in a movie.''

This text was written by Igor Rudan and translated by Lauren Simmonds

For rolling information and updates in English on coronavirus in Croatia, as well as other lengthy articles written by Croatian epidemiologist Igor Rudan, follow our dedicated section.

The latest COVID-19 update for Croatia is here, which includes Serbian-Croatian border closures, a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people and the negative effects on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.

As Index writes on the 12th of March, 2020, civil protection met with the Prime Minister yesterday and decided to introduce new coronavirus measures. As of tomorrow, schools are closing in Istria and there will be no classes taking place. Civil protection should consider a proposal today and also ban all gatherings of more than a hundred people in Croatia.

This morning, another COVID-19 update has arrived based on announcements from Serbian Prime Minister Vucic that Serbia is closing some of its border crossings with Croatia. According to the report from the Osijek-Baranja Police Directorate, Batina was closed for all traffic at 07:00 this morning, HAK reported.

According to Zoran Kon, spokesman for the Osijek-Baranja Police Department, the Batina-Bezdan border crossing, the Erdut-Bogojevo railway bridge and the Apatin river crossing were all closed.

In addition to its border with the Republic of Croatia, the Serbs will be closing more border crossings with Bosnia and Herzegovina as of today. The closures already implemented took effect at 07:00 this morning.

Checks being undertaken at border crossings have been increased, meaning that longer waiting for passengers, especially for freight vehicles, is possible, HAK warned.

Another COVID-19 update comes in the form of a session of the Parliamentary Committee on gender equality which was due to be held on Thursday being postponed until further notice for "epidemiological reasons" because the number of those interested in attending the session was more than a hundred.

Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros announced at a government session a new measure to curb the spread of coronavirus, which recommends delaying or restricting gatherings of more than a hundred people. In presenting the measures on Thursday, the recommendation was to postpone any organised gatherings due to be attended by more than 100 people.

The holding of various sport competitions without spectators was also suggested.

A meeting that took place on Wednesday at Banski Dvori also brings us another important COVID-19 update as the introduction of new measures already touched on in this article was confirmed, schools will be closed in Istria as of Friday and there will be no classes taking place.

According to the latest data, a total of 431 people were tested in Croatia this morning, of which nineteen are positive.

The Zagreb Stock Exchange has seen a drop of more than ten percent and trading has been discontinued.

Eventim HR has launched a separate tab on its website called "COVID-19 EVENT INFORMATION", which contains all information about delayed events and information related to the government's previous recommendation to postpone all organised rallies with more than 1000 people.

The chief adviser to the Minister of Education, Marko Kosicek, said that schools were yesterday instructed on how to prepare for virtual classes if coronavirus causes them to be closed, and stressed that they must make that preparation.

Minister Tomislav Coric says that persons spreading false news about coronaviruses should be held criminally responsible, and Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic and Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic then announced an investigation into such individuals.

For rolling information on COVID-19 updates, follow TCN's dedicated section.

March 12, 2020 - TCN catches up with Liza Belozerova from Google.org to discuss the exciting partner with IRIM bringing digital hope and change to Croatia's libraries.

With so much bad news around in Croatia and elsewhere, it is sometimes hard to see the positives. But if you look a little deeper than the surface negativity in Croatia, there are plenty of very exciting things going on. 

Among them is the STEM revolution, which is being spearheaded by leading Croatian entrepreneur, Nenad Bakic. Along with Mate Rimac, Bakic was named by the Financial Times as one of Europe's top 100 digital champions, and he has been putting part of his considerable energies into STEM projects to equip children from schools in Croatia and the wider region with the digital skills necessary for the future. 

The Institute for Youth Development and Innovativity (IRIM) is a Croatia-based non-profit organization (private foundation), which has developed and implements the largest extracurricular STEM program in EU – the Croatian Makers movement, encompassing now over 150,000 children in Croatia. Although IRIM originates from, and primarily operates in, Croatia, it has transposed its activities to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, where IRIM and local partners deliver IRIM-designed major projects (with initial funding from IRIM), reaching tens of thousands more children. Some programs are joint regional activities. Such cross-border co-operation is of utmost significance in the region which still suffers consequences stemming from the conflicts in the 1990s. You can learn more about IRIM on the official website. 

IRIM's work was noticed by Google.org, and the two joined forces in 2018 for an initial partnership worth $250,000 to expand a programme in Croatia's libraries, whereby IRIM would promote digital skills in libraries through workshops, librarian training, equipment and events. More than 1,500 workshops were conducted by librarians, and over 13,000 people took part, as Rujana Bakic explained in an earlier article on TCN (you can also see Rujana's interview with TCN below. 

Last month Liza Belozerova from Google.org was in Zagreb to present the next phase of the IRIM project, as well as announcing a second-phase funding of $400,000 for IRIM and its digital library project, as reported on TCN at the time. 

Liza was kind enough to spare a few minutes after the event for a video interview with TCN, in which she talked about the project, as well as offering some thoughts on digital Croatia in general. Thank you.