Passengers arriving in Croatia from Italy to undergo strict health checks

The same controls will be in place for passengers arriving from the rest of Italy and China, the head of the team Maja Grba-Bujevic told reporters in Zagreb on Monday morning.

The health ministry's crisis management team, which was set up to handle developments surrounding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the world, is due to hold a news conference at 1pm Monday.

Croatia prepared for coronavirus

Grba-Bujevic said that the authorities had decided to take all the necessary measures to be prepared for the detection of possible first patients infected with this virus, after the north of Italy started fighting with Europe's biggest outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

In the meantime, 42 students and four teachers from a secondary school in the northern Adriatic city of Pula, who returned from a trip to Venice on Sunday night, will be quarantined in their homes for the next 14 days.

The Croatian education ministry instructed primary and secondary schools to cancel any organised educational trips to Italy in the next 30 days.

Italy sealed off the worst-affected towns and banned public gatherings in much of the north, halting the carnival in Venice where two people were diagnosed with the virus.

European Union health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that possible travel restrictions in the Schengen border-free area should be proportionate and coordinated among EU states, as the bloc faces a coronavirus outbreak in Italy, Reuters reported.

“For the moment WHO has not advised imposing restrictions on either travel or trade,” Kyriakides told reporters on Monday, adding that a World Health Organization mission will travel to Italy on Tuesday to assess the situation.