Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that introducing fines for people not abiding latest Covid restrictions was 'necessary' as there was 'a certain number of irresponsible individuals who threatened other people's lives.'

“We based our fight against coronavirus on trust between citizens and the government. We are confident that most citizens understand very well the circumstances we are in but we also think that this tool is essential considering that a certain number of irresponsible individuals threaten the lives of others. That is why we will make a proposal to the parliament to amend the law,” said Plenkovic while chairing a cabinet meeting online after he went into self-isolation.

Referring to the epidemiological situation, he said that even though the numbers are still high, they are somewhat lower today than they were a week ago.

Today there are 1,830 new cases and 74 deaths, which is a record number of fatalities since the outbreak of the epidemic. That is the consequence of the large number of people infected over the past few weeks, said Plenkovic. “We know that these fatal outcomes are also due to belated hospitalisations,” he added.

Plenkovic said that the current stage of the epidemic was still very serious and once again called on everyone to act responsibly. “The latest restrictions have been introduced to reduce the number of infections and enable the sustainability of our health system and reduce the burden on it,” he underlined.