New rules for shopping centres should be in place by the end of the week, whereby they should ensure 20 square metres of space per person instead of four, the Jutarnji List daily said on Wednesday.

In the past few days, the national Covid-19 crisis management team has been hinting that measures in shops will have to be tightened, especially ahead of the holidays and pre-holiday shopping crowds.

Croatia’s chief epidemiologist, Krunoslav Capak, announced that the number of prescribed square metres of space per customer could be increased from four to 10, which provoked a reaction from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and the Croatian Employers’ Association.

They underscored that it was not good to stipulate a unique number of square metres of space per customer for all shops, and that the number should depend on the size of a particular shop.

Their suggestion was taken into consideration, so it was decided that the number of required square metres of space would depend on the shop’s size since 50-square-metre neighbourhood shops could not be compared with shopping centres with several tens of thousands of square metres.

Checks will be strict, and the number of people entering will be monitored. When 85% of the planned capacity is filled, the shopping centre will close, and when it empties again, new customers will be let in, the daily said.

Documents that will clearly define categories of shops according to their size are being hammered out, and it is expected that they will be presented to the public by the end of the week, Jutarnji List said.