Croatia has registered 2,848 new cases of the coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, but a weekly analysis shows that the number of new cases is not doubling, and the number of active cases has dropped by 1,051 in the last four days, Health Minister Vili Beros said on Thursday.

The increase this week is 22%, Beros told reporters after a government session.

The number of patients in hospitals is on the rise, as is the number of fatalities, which is expected as those numbers follow the increase in new cases.

Beros said he would talk with representatives of doctors’ associations which yesterday called for the introduction of stricter measures against coronavirus.

I fully understand their demand, but we must achieve a balance between maintaining the economy and doing what is most important to preserve health, he said.

He said that some countries had introduced a complete lockdown yet they had not seen a decrease in the number of new infections.

Beros thanked primary care doctors for becoming involved in tracing the contacts of persons infected with coronavirus.

Commenting on the opposition’s demand for his resignation, Beros said that he was doing everything he could to fight the epidemic, adding that in the end everything he has done will be analysed.