Croatia confirmed three new cases of coronavirus infection on Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total to 19. Serbia's case count rose to 12, and Slovenia - which now has 57 confirmed cases, rising almost threefold in 48 hours - moved to close down a school in a town north of Ljubljana after a teacher there tested positive. All countries in the region imposed travel bans and restricted public events in an effort to contain the outbreak.
Croatia’s coronavirus crisis headquarters reported on Wednesday afternoon that three new coronavirus cases were confirmed in people who had recently returned from trips to Austria and Germany. None of the patients identified so far are in life-threatening condition.
Meanwhile, the emergency department at Zagreb’s KB Dubrava hospital – one of the largest in the country – was shut down over night after a man who had been admitted showed symptoms of the disease. The man later tested negative at another hospital, but the scare caused the emergency ward, which serves the eastern half of the city, to be closed throughout the night.
Later on Wednesday, the state-owned ferry company Jadrolinija announced that it would suspend its Adriatic line to the Italian port of Ancona, after a ferry arrived to the seaside city of Split carrying more than 90 passengers, 40 of whom were placed in quarantine at a local hotel. Flag carrier Croatia Airlines had earlier suspended its route serving Italy’s capital Rome.
Like all other countries in the region, Croatia imposed travel restrictions, requiring incoming travellers who had visited Italy, parts of China, Iran, and other outbreak hotspots to go into mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Although Croatia has stopped short from closing kindergartens and schools, local government officials in Istria, in the northwestern part of the country, are calling for closures, saying that their proximity to Italy may be putting the local population at higher risk than in the rest of the country.
Education Minister, Blazenka Divjak, sent out instructions on Wednesday to primary and secondary schools on how to organise online classes in case schools are shut down in the near future.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic cancelled all public events related to the upcoming party elections of his ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Later in the day, the local football federation ordered all matches to be played behind closed doors until at least the end of March.
In Slovenia, which imposed mandatory health checks on its border with Italy, the case count rose to 47 on Wednesday, with the majority of cases detected in the capital Ljubljana. One of the new cases was in an elementary school teacher in the small town of Kamnik north of Ljubljana, causing the school to be closed for two weeks for precaution.
In Bosnia, which reported seven cases by Wednesday, all schools and universities were closed in the Republika Srpska half of the country. The Federation, which makes up the other half, has announced plans to follow suit in order to contain the spread of the virus.
Although Croatia has stopped short from closing kindergartens and schools, local government officials in Istria, in the northwestern part of the country, are calling for closures, saying that their proximity to Italy may be putting the local population at higher risk than in the rest of the country.
In Serbia, four new cases were added to the count, making it 12 detected so far, leading the government to restrict indoor public events. Both the opposition and the ruling party have cancelled campaign rallies ahead of the April 26 election.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 121,000 cases have been confirmed globally since the outbreak started in China in December, including more than 4,300 deaths. The most severely affected European country is Italy, which reported more than 10,000 cases and 631 deaths and was put on lockdown on Tuesday.
This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
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