The local authorities in Istria County and towns on Thursday called on Prime Minister Plenkovic to postpone the latest restrictions for hospitality businesses in Istria for eight days during which time the situation would be monitored.

After that, appropriate actions will be taken, if necessary, they said in an open letter to the government.

Taking into account the fact of the increased incidence rate of new coronavirus cases in Istria County and monitoring where new cases are emerging, acting Istria County Prefect Fabrizio Radin and the mayors of all cities in the county consider that for the time being hospitality facilities “are not an epidemiological threat in Istria County.”

“Alongside all the measures that are currently being implemented in that sector with stepped-up supervision, we believe that hospitality facilities will not be the basis for the epidemiological situation to deteriorate,” Istrian officials said in their letter to the government and added that since the outbreak of the epidemic, Istria has reacted in a timely manner and during the tourism season the health of citizens or guests was not brought into question.

They recalled that it was Istria in fact that first introduced lockdown measures for schools and hospitality facilities in an effort to prevent the uncontrolled spread of the virus from Italy.

They also recalled the Istria was the first to be corona free in Croatia which speaks in favour of Istria’s actions from the very start and that it acted responsibly, on time and in accordance with epidemiological developments.

“As such we ask that Croatia’s COVID-19 crisis management team and the government, to defer the implementation of a lockdown for hospitality facilities in Istria County for eight days during which we will monitor the situation and if necessary, react in a timely fashion as we have until now,” the letter said.