As of Friday all classes in primary and secondary schools and universities in Istria County will be suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced on Wednesday evening after a meeting of the national civil protection authority.

Tomorrow all schools in Istria will make preparations for activities over the next few days, Plenkovic added.

Local government officials in Istria, in the northwestern part of the country, have been calling for closures of schools and kindergartens, saying that their proximity to Italy may be putting the local population at higher risk than in the rest of the country.

“We’ve adopted several decisions and an activity plan for the future. The first one relates to Istria County. I was in touch with Istria County prefect today. We had received questions from him considering the situation in Istria, daily migrations and the desire to undertake certain measures that could relieve the situation in the county, to investigate the possibility of approving the suspension of schools and universities and kindergartens. We recommend that as of Friday, all classes and lectures in Istria County be suspended,” said Plenkovic.

So far, 19 cases of the coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Croatia. None of the patients are in life-threatening condition, and most of them are exhibiting only mild symptoms of the disease.

Also 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.

Italy remains the worst-hit country in Europe, with more than 10,000 confirmed cases, while the death toll has risen to more than 630. The entire country has been under lockdown since Tuesday, and the government announced on Wednesday evening that all businesses except grocery shops and farmacies would be closed until further notice.