Five new cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Croatia, bringing the total number of the people infected to 37, the national civil protection service said on Saturday morning.
Two persons are from Osijek and one each is from Sisak, Varazdin and Zagreb. The cases in Osijek are contacts of a person previously infected in Zagreb. The person from Sisak has recently returned from Spain, the one from Varazdin has returned from America via several places in Europe, while the person from Zagreb has returned from Spain.
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“For now all these are imported cases or close contacts of previously diagnosed cases,” the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, said.
The head of the Civil Protection Service, Damir Trut, said that results for one more person were expected later in the day.
He said that 141 persons were infected in Slovenia, 18 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 19 in Hungary and 35 in Serbia, adding that there was no information about Montenegro and Kosovo.
“The situation is rather challenging and dramatic, but we are keeping it under control and in order,” Trut said.
Capak said that the second twin brother, who was infected first, had recovered, testing negative within a space of 48 hours and would be released in the course of the day.
He said that over 500 people in Croatia had been tested so far.
Asked about long lines of vehicles at the borders, Capak said that people could not be allowed into the country without getting an order to self-isolate.
“From now on border inspectors will not be writing out orders but will be handing out printed notices to people coming from category 2 countries. The inspectors will only need to take their name, destination and telephone number, which will take two minutes,” he said, adding that the notice forms should be prepared today and distributed to the border crossings.
Capak said that it would be more important to monitor self-isolation than to impose penalties for violating it. “We are working on it and will try to do it within the next few hours and days.”
He confirmed media reports about migrant disobeying self-isolation orders, saying that it was a Syrian man who had been returned by Austria. “It is an undisciplined person. We did all we could to put him in quarantine, but I don’t know if it works. I will check that and get back to you later.”
Given that among those infected is a kindergarten child from Zagreb, children’s ombudswoman Helenca Pirnat Dragicevic appealed to the press to follow the highest professional standards in covering such cases and take into account the wellbeing of the child.
Meanwhile, Serbian authorities reported six new case, with the total number of those infected in the country increasing to 41.
