Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday that due to the increased number of people infected with Covid-19 and consequent deaths, epidemiological measures would be ramped up, but efforts would be made to avoid a lockdown or restrictive measures like those implemented in the spring.

“The situation is under control. We will have to balance between maintaining health and economic activities until a vaccine is found. Until then we will be tightening measures but will try to avoid a lockdown and the number of restrictive measures as we had in the spring,” Plenkovic told reporters after a joint meeting of the Croatian Democratic Union presidency and national council, commenting on the spread of coronavirus and introduction of stringent measures throughout Europe.

Asked about the lockdown that many European countries are introducing, including Germany, Plenkovic recalled that after the epidemiological situation in Croatia deteriorated, a package of measures had been introduced to curb the spread of the virus.

“The numbers in many EU countries are a lot worse than in Croatia,” the prime minister said.

He thanked epidemiologists and doctors who have invested extraordinary effort over the past eight months and called on citizens who have tested positive to transparently inform the relevant services of their contacts and enable monitoring.

“If people are sincere and note all their contacts, this job will be much easier,” Plenkovic concluded.