Interior Minister and head of Croatia's COVID-19 crisis management team, Davor Bozinovic, said on Monday he was confident the epidemiological restrictions currently in place in the country and appropriate considering the number of tourist arrivals and the resulting infection rate.

“It is no surprise that the number of new infections has been rising. The increase, however, is not dramatic and I believe that the current restrictions are appropriate,” Bozinovic said, noting that there was room for optimism in the coming weeks if the current situation continued.

Asked about an increase in the price of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Bozinovic said that all doses that were administered as well as those scheduled to arrive, including for the new variants of the virus, were covered by agreements negotiated by the European Commission.

“It is evident that vaccination will continue, just as the epidemic is ongoing. As for those announcements, we will see what the EC and member-states will say about them,” he said.

As for the August 5 commemoration of the 1995 Operation Storm in the context of epidemiological restrictions, the minister said that around 1,500 guests had been invited so far and that the COVID-19 response team was confident there would be no challenges in that regard.

Plans are also underway on epidemiological plans for the Alka tournament and the Neretva Boat Race, he said.

Asked if he believed Croatia would be able to keep the status of a safe tourist destination, Bozinovic said that it would depend on everyone.

“We have been monitoring daily developments, including the emergence of new hotspots. At the moment we can say that we are optimistic that in the next report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Croatia would still be in the orange zone,” he said.