Health Minister Vili Beros said on Tuesday in Cakovec that Medjimurje County had turned into a hospot of coronavirus due to its geographic position, workers commuting to and from neighbouring countries and Zagreb, and due to an intensified incidence rate after the start of the school year.

During his visit to this northern county, the minister commended the local healthcare authorities for their efforts to curb the infection and promised them personnel and technical assistance.

The head of the Cakovec Hospital, Tomislav Novinscak, said that they had the situation under control.

The head of Medjimurje County’s Institute of Public Health, Marina Payerl-Pal, underscored the fact that the county conducted the highest number of coronavirus tests per 100,000 inhabitants.

For the sake of comparison, in the whole of Croatia 240 per 100,000 inhabitants are tested, while in this county this ratio is 340 per 100,000, she said.

Nearly 1 in 3 inhabitants in Medjimurje County tested for coronavirus to date

Prefect Matija Posavec said that to date 31% of residents in the county had been tested for coronavirus.

He said that recently both the new coronavirus case numbers and the ratio of positive tests had been falling.

Commenting on the appeal of 26 scientists, researchers and doctors who on Sunday demanded tighter restrictions, Beros said that he could detect in their appeal common points with the work of the COVID-19 crisis management team and that there was no big difference of opinion between the crisis management team and the signatories of the appeal.

However, it is ‘not good’ to use ‘some ideas’ for the ‘promotion of one’s personal or other interests’ outside a certain scientific communication channel, the minister said.