"Coronavirus cases in Croatia are rising... but that the situation is better than in other countries," Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the reporters, he said that was to be expected given the large number of tourists and that it was key that people complied with Covid rules.

Bozinovic, who heads the national Covid-19 crisis management team, said “everything should be done to encourage people to get vaccinated and that the only way out of this crisis was by relying on science,” state agency Hina reported.

He would not speculate whether the use of Covid certificates would be expanded, saying that would depend on how the Covid situation developed, but added that they were “already being used smartly.”

He said every local Covid crisis management team had designated premises for tourists who might be positive. “We are certainly one of the states transparently communicating with citizens and abroad.”

That, he said, also applies to claims that tourists are returning home infected. This year there is more testing and those infected are accommodated on premises envisaged for that, he added.

There is an EU early warning mechanism which shows that about 100 people have returned home positive, Bozinovic said. “We don’t know if someone becomes positive during the incubation period.”