Croatian troops on Thursday began putting up a tent for a medical camp outside Zagreb’s Dubrava hospital with a capacity of 270 beds to accommodate patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

The camp, which is expected to be fully functional by Saturday, will serve for accommodation of some 200 people at first. The camp can be self-sufficient but it was decided that for now it will serve as an accommodation facility, said Major General Mladen Fuzul.

A self-sufficient expedition camp can accommodate about 300 soldiers in wartime, but can also be used in peacetime operations in extreme conditions. Such camps are also intended for civilian use during humanitarian disasters.

Meanwhile, the case count in Croatia continued to climb, with 105 cases of the coronavirus infection confirmed on Thursday afternoon, up from 89 on Wednesday. The first fatality in the country was also confirmed on Thursday morning.

Other countries in the region have also decided to deploy the military to help in the efforts to contain the outbreak.

A quarantine camp, which can accommodate up to 500 people, had been set up outside the Serbian town of Sid near the border with Croatia, for Serbian citizens who do not have a home address in the country.

Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency on Wednesday also decided to deploy soldiers at tent settlements at border crossings, where people entering the country will be placed in quarantine for 14 days.