Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) head Krunoslav Capak on Monday called for patience before the completion of trials of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Earlier in the day, media outlets reported that the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford stops 70% of people from developing Covid symptoms, according to a large-scale trial.

“This information is too serious. A few hours ago, reports said that the efficiency of the vaccine was estimated at 70%, and later AstraZeneca insisted on the rebuttal of that information, claiming that it could increase protection up to 90%,” Capak told a news conference, adding that he would rather wait for the completion of the vaccination trials.

KB Dubrava hospital has enough room and ventilators

Assistant Health Minister Vera Katalinic Jankovic told the news conference that the situation in Zagreb’s KB Dubrava hospital, which was converted into an institution for treating Covid-19 patients, was stable.

Currently, the hospital is providing for 420 patients and there is enough room in six intensive care units. There are enough ventilators, and we will procure new ones if necessary, the assistant minister said.

The head of the Zagreb-based Dr. Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, said that currently 26 patients in that hospital were placed on ventilators.

“All over the world, there is a marked rise in the number of Covid patients, their clinical picture is graver than the situation in the spring, much more people have developed pneumonia. The situation is under control, but all are following the developments with concern,” Markotic said.

Two to three winter months are ahead of us, it will be more and more difficult to keep the situation under control. We must be aware that all this will not be over in a few weeks’ time. We are going to face an increasing pressure to care for patients who fall ill from the coronavirus infection, she said.

1,973 new coronavirus infections, 45 deaths in last 24 hours

Croatia has registered 1,973 new cases of the coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours, as well as 45 related deaths, the national Covid-19 crisis management team said today.

The number of active cases in Croatia stands at 19,275. There are 2,060 Covid patients in hospitals, including 235 on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case, a total of 105,691 people have contracted coronavirus, 1,398 of them have died, and 85,018 have recovered, including 2,638 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 40,083 people in self-isolation.

To date, 683,104 people have been tested for coronavirus, including 6,139 in the last 24 hours.