Croatia reported a surge in the daily number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday as 1,835 new cases had been registered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of active cases to 7,037.

Among those infected are 603 people who are hospitalized and 64 of them are on ventilators. Seven people have died in the past 24 hours.

Health Minister Vili Beros told Parliament that Croatia was at the beginning of the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Today’s 1,835 new infections are indeed a warning. Seven of the infected persons have died and only one of them was vaccinated. The healthcare system will be ready, but the question is whether society will be ready because not enough people have been vaccinated,” Beros said.

A similar number of cases were registered on 30 November 2020, when as many as 73 people died, and on 26 March 2021, when 16 people died.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was reported in Croatia, 386, 891 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,463 have died and 371,391 have recovered, including 609 in the past 24 hours. A total of 14,799 people are currently in self-isolation.

To date, 2,684,626 people have been tested for Covid-19, including 11,550 in the past 24 hours. A total of 3,341,864 doses of vaccines have been administered, with 43.53 percent of the total population or 52.26 percent of the adult population having been vaccinated. 1,766,447 people have received at least one dose and 1,655,970 of them have been fully vaccinated.