Croatia's health authorities called on Monday for all public gatherings expecting more than a thousand people to be postponed or cancelled, and announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving into the country from outbreak's hotspots.
Croatia has confirmed only 13 cases of infection so far – five in Rijeka, four in Varazdin, three in Zagreb, and one discovered on Monday in Pula. However, local authorities said on Monday that in spite of the low count, they would do everything in their power to contain the spread of the disease, after Italy announced a shutdown in several northern regions with 16 million people.
Incoming foreign travellers from China’s Huabei province, Italy’s northern provinces including Lombardy, Germany’s Heinsberg county, South Korea’s city of Daegu and its Cheongdo province, or Iran, will be put into mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival.
Croatian nationals returning to the country from these areas will also be quarantined, and those who had been to other parts of China, other parts of South Korea, other northern Italian provinces, Hong Kong, Japan, or Singapore, would receive order to self-isolate as a precaution.
People are also advised to avoid travelling to worst-hit areas of regions, while transport trucks coming into the country are advised to use one of the six border crossings with Slovenia equipped with round-the-clock sanitary inspections.
It is still unclear what the outbreak’s impact would be for Croatia’s exports and tourism. Italy is one of Croatia’s major trading partners and accounts for some 15 percent of the country’s total exports. In addition, about 200,000 Italian tourists, mostly from northern Italy, who normally spend their summer holidays on the Croatian Adriatic are essential for the local tourist industry.
Last week, Economy Minister, Darko Horvat, expressed concern over possible knock-on effects to Croatia’s economy if the crisis continues and announced new laws to help affected businesses.
Slovenia reports spike in confirmed cases
In Slovenia, the number of confirmed infections rose to 23 on Monday, after more than 1,200 suspect cases have been tested. Among the infected are seven health workers who had been in contact with patients.
Also on Monday, the nation’s Health Minister, Ales Sabeder, announced a set of measures which include screening all incoming passengers at Ljubljana Airport for heightened body temperature, and checks for infection symptoms on land border crossings with neighbouring Italy.
Detailed instructions on how to prevent an infection will be sent to all households in the country by mail, and the government announced it would buy some 500,000 face masks. Slovenia has a population of slightly more than 2 million.
On Sunday, Slovenia banned all indoor gatherings with 500 people or more, and on Monday Sabeder said that the ban would be extended to any gathering with more than 100 people. However, kindergartens and schools will continue working normally for now.
Economy Minister, Zdravko Pocivalsek, said that the Ljubljana government has prepared a €998 million package of measures to alleviate the negative impact of the outbreak on Slovenia’s economy.
In the short term, the government would help businesses by covering 40 percent of their financial losses directly linked to the coronavirus. Other subsidies which would help exports and tourist industries are being prepared.
Outbreak spreads worldwide
Around 110,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed globally as of Monday, including 31,000 outside China. Nearly 3,900 people have died from the coronavirus since the outbreak started in China in December.
The worst hit European country is Italy, where 366 deaths had been been reported by Monday morning, followed by Spain with 25 deaths and France with 19. Later on Monday, 97 new deaths were reported in Italy alone, and first two cases have been confirmed in Cyprus, meaning that the coronavirus has now spread to all EU countries.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, fourth case has been confirmed on Monday, in a daughter of a man who works in Italy, based in the northern Bosnian town of Celinac. Previous two cases had been confirmed last week in Banja Luka, one of the country’s largest cities. Serbia reported its second case on Monday.
Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday that the threat of a pandemic “has become very real” as the virus continues to spread worldwide.
“This is an uneven epidemic at the global level. Different countries are in different scenarios, requiring a tailored response. It’s not about containment or mitigation – which is a false dichotomy. It’s about both,” he said, adding that all countries must take a “comprehensive blended strategy” for controlling their own epidemics.
WHO continues to refrain from using the term “pandemic” for the coronavirus outbreak, saying that the crucial factor is in whether the disease has reached a point where it can no longer be controlled.
The difference in labelling outbreaks as “epidemic” or “pandemic” refers to strategies used to combat them – epidemics, which usually happen in a smaller geographical area, are fought by containing the disease, whereas pandemics, which are more global in scope, are fought by mitigating its effects on the general population.
Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.
