On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, observed on 3 December, Croatia's ombudswoman for persons with disabilities warned that the Covid-19 pandemic particularly affected the disabled and the ill.

Anka Slonjsak said in a statement released on Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak made it more difficult for persons with disabilities to access therapies and healthcare services.

According to data provided by the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), since the onset of the epidemic in Croatia, 10,987 people with disabilities have contracted the novel virus and 446 of them have died from complications linked to Covid-19.

Slonjsak says that international institutions for protection of rights of disabled persons have been warning that the situation caused by the pandemic has degraded the level of rights which persons with disabilities could exercise before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Furthermore, the pandemic has reinforced the segregation of disabled persons into institutions, she warned.