The director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, announced on Wednesday that COVID tests would soon be conducted in large companies in the City of Varazdin which, according to information from the field, have many coronavirus infections.

Addressing a regular press conference by the government’s COVID response team, Capak said that the HZJZ had, in cooperation with the Varazdin County institute, launched a project to conduct COVID tests in large companies with a lot of employees in that county.

Technical conditions are already established today in Calzedonia, a company with more than 2,000 workers, said Capak, adding that he expects about 10,000 employees to be tested in the coming period.

More than 12,000 swabs taken in the past 24 hours

In the past 24 hours more than 12,000 swabs have been taken in Croatia and Capak said he estimates that it is possible to take 15,000 tests are day, possibly even 20,000. He added that one third of PCR tests in the City of Varazdin are available despite the high incidence rate in that county.

Capak said he believes that 70% of the population will decide to be vaccinated.

Considering the great interest by people to be vaccinated against the flu, Capak does not see any reason why that interest should not exist for the COVID vaccination but, he said, perhaps a little more time is required to inform the public about the vaccine.

“There is still enough time and room to talk to people about the safety and efficiency of the vaccine,” said Capak, adding that the number of media articles about the vaccine is growing, experts have a positive opinion, and a campaign is being prepared in that regard.

Croatia registered 4,520 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday after 12,596 tests were conducted, while 69 people have died, the response team told the press conference.

According to Capak, last Wednesday there were 3,603 new cases and the weekly average has increased by 3.7%, which is a smaller increase compared to the week before that.

The incidence rate is still high and amounts to 582.1 per 100,000 population, with Medjumurje County topping the list with 1,119, followed by Varazdin County with 1,094 and Krapina-Zagorje County with 893.

Dubrovnik-Neretva, Istria and Pozega-Slavonia counties have the lowest incidence.

Croatia has the second highest incidence among EU countries, with only Luxembourg faring worse. As far as mortality is concerned, Croatia is ranked 15th among the EU-27 with a mortality rate of 547.8 per 1 million residents.

The share of positive tests in the past 14 days is 35.6% compared to 23% overall since the outbreak of the epidemic. Only Bulgaria and Poland are faring worse than Croatia in that regard.

Health Minister Vili Beros underlined the importance of caring for health staff who are exposed to the disease while doing their jobs.

Permanent psychological support has been established at the Dubrava (COVID) hospital in Zagreb, while the Vrapce Psychiatric Hospital, also in Zagreb, has launched two programmes providing psychological help in an effort to prevent burnout.

The Croatian Chamber of Psychologists too has been a great support since the outbreak of the epidemic and has set up emergency telephone lines providing psychological advice and support to citizens.