Istria has joined the epidemiological "green zone" today after recording a coronavirus incidence rate of 24 cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days, the director of the Istria County Public Health Institute, Aleksandar Stojanovic, told the state news agency Hina on Monday, citing the latest EU data.

Stojanovic said that Istria had seen a considerable drop in the infection incidence rate in recent weeks and a stagnation in the last two weeks, which calls for caution. He noted that Istria County was the last to reopen all schools because the education sector generated mobility and a large number of contacts.

About 8,700 people vaccinated, 2,600 with two doses

Stojanovic said that about 8,700 people in Istria had been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 2,600 with two doses. He said that the vaccination was well coordinated and carried out at nine vaccination points across the county.

“We, of course, would be more pleased if we had more vaccine because the public interest is much greater than the number of vaccine doses available,” he said.

The head of the county COVID-19 response team, Dino Kozlevac, said Istria continued to see a positive trend, but expressed concern about the situation in surrounding areas. He mentioned infection cases among staff at the Pula General Hospital, in schools and other sectors, as a result of which many people were in self-isolation.

Kozlevac warned that people had relaxed, increasing their contacts and ignoring the symptoms of the disease. “We are monitoring the relaxation of measures and will see its impact. We are mostly concerned about the situation in surrounding areas, which is not good at all.”