In the last 24 hours, there have been nine new infections with the novel coronavirus in Croatia, bringing the total number to 2,085, whereas the death toll has risen by six to 75, Croatia's COVID-19 crisis management team said at a daily news conference on Friday.

Since the outbreak of the disease in late February, 1,421 patients have recovered, which is about two thirds out of those 2,085 cases.

As for the latest fatalities, five were elderly women in Split, born in 1924, 1927, 1948 and two born in 1942, and one more fatality was an 89-year-old woman in the town of Koprivnica.

Health Minister Vili Beros told the news conference that three of them had been on ventilators.

The average age of the dead patients is 79.2 years, and 55 percent of those victims were women.

Currently, 17 patients are on ventilators, among those 248 who are being treated in hospitals. The number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients fell by 13 from Thursday.