Croatia’s test positivity rate stands at less than 2.4%

Not one coronavirus-related death has been reported in Croatia over the past 24 hours. There are only 612 active positive test results in the country, with 115 people receiving treatment in hospital and only 4 patients on ventilators.

According to the National Civil Protection Directorate 87 new positive coronavirus test results have been registered in Croatia over the past 24 hours, with a test positivity rate of slightly less than 2.4%. In spite of this, officials continue to call on citizens to get vaccinated.

"As you all know the right to a healthy life is a constitutional right, while at the same time the state must maintain conditions for a healthy environment and working conditions, therefore it is in this context that we wanted to initiate an education program in the health care sector for everyone, including those who have not been vaccinated and do not want to get vaccinated," said Health Minister Vili Beroš.

For his part the Director of the Croatian Institute for Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, still believes that mandatory vaccination is an option: "As you know no one in the world has made vaccination against COVID obligatory. But I would say that this option is not off the table, because we have to bear in mind that COVID-19 has brought global finances, economics and social life to a standstill."

"When vaccination reduces COVID to nothing more than the common cold, just as the majority of other coronavirus variants are, then we will have succeeded. It isn't important of we're sniffling for a few days, the points is that we don't have any serious consequences and that we don't have severe symptoms," concluded that director of the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Alemka Markotić.

Meanwhile, more and more cities throughout the country are offering vaccination without a previously scheduled appointment. It seems the primary motivation for citizens to get vaccinated is travel abroad: "The first question everyone we vaccinated asked is; how do I get a COVID certificate. So, this definitely encouraged people to get vaccinated," noted Jasmina Mikan, the Head Nurse at the Karlovac Health Center.

Meanwhile President Zoran Milanović criticized the work of the National Civil Protection Directorate today, saying that it had become politicized and had nothing to do with the medical profession: "Throughout this entire eighteen month COVID saga, the only thing that has amazed me is the fact that biochemistry, molecular biology and virology succeeded in inventing a medicine. Some centers of human intellect have proven to be up to the task. Everything else, epidemiology and such, that's all mumbo jumbo."

As of yesterday Croatian health care workers have administered 2 769 141 doses of the coronavirus vaccine, 28 640 doses were administered on Thursday alone.

Source: HRT