The government on Monday gave its consent to the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) to procure invasive ventilators for COVID-19 and also to the Zagreb-based Infectious Diseases Hospital to obtain Veklury (Remdesivir) medication for the first three months of next year.

The price of one ventilator is €24,000 without VAT (HRK 180,000) and based on the situation it was decided to procure 169 ventilators for a total price of €5.056 million (HRK 38.02 million), said Health Minister Vili Beros.

The government authorised the public health institute’s director Krunoslav Capak to sign the contract with GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, in Germany for the procurement of the ventilators.

The government also decided to endorse the procurement of Veklury (Remdesivir), a broad-spectrum antiviral medication, for the treatment of COVID-19 patients who require additional oxygen hence a separate contract will be signed with Gilead Sciences, in Ireland to procure the medicine for the period from 1 January to 31 March next year.

An estimated 5,000 doses are required a month or 15,000 doses for that period, based on estimates by health institutions.

The price of one dose is HRK 2,625 (without VAT), or a total of HRK 41.3 million with VAT and the director of the Fran Mihaljevic Infectious Diseases Hospital has been authorised to sign that procurement contract.

Deadline for introducing refundable milk bottles shifted to 1 July

The government amended a waste management decision extending the deadline to introduce refundable milk bottles from 1 January to 1 July 2021.

The reason to defer the introduction of refundable bottles is to relieve the economic impact the coronavirus has had on the national dairy industry and to preserve national cattle production, particularly for milk production.

The government sent a request to the parliament for an extraordinary sitting so lawmakers can among other things, discuss a decision to declare Croatia’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Adriatic Sea.