The head of Zagreb's hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, said on Friday that so far infection with the British coronavirus strain had been confirmed in two players of the Hajduk football club from the Adriatic city of Split, as well as in the two samples sent from the southernmost Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

She stressed that microbiologists in Croatia were checking to see whether new tests are  able to detect the UK variant.

According to microbiologist Jasmina Vranjes of Zagreb’s Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, who has validated several available tests, the share of the UK strain in all confirmed coronavirus cases in Croatia could be around 25%.

Markotic noted however that this percentage was only an estimate and that the validation process was still under way.

“That is a demanding job, when new tests appear, the problem is to determine how good they really are,” said Markotic.

Health Minister Vili Beros commented on the appearance of coronavirus at the KBC Split hospital.

He said that the virus had not got into the hospital significantly as patients had been tested before admission, they were tested in the hospital and after their test results were obtained, they were put in a unit for COVID-19 patients.

“I believe the procedure was appropriate and the only possible and that it prevented the virus from entering deeper into the health system,” he said.

By Thursday, 205,393 vaccine doses were spent and 146,565 people were vaccinated. The vaccination process is over for 58,828 people. The HALMED regulator by Thursday received 1,074 reports of suspected side effects, of which 868 referred to the Pfizer vaccine, 65 to the Moderna vaccine and 139 to the AstraZeneca vaccine.