The number of new coronavirus cases in Croatia has increased by 44% in the past week compared with the previous week, and the share of positive people among those tested was 14.3%, the national COVID-19 response team said at a press conference on Monday.

“In the week between 16 and 22 March, we had a total of 6,616 new cases, while between 9 and 15 March there were 4,566 new infections. The number for this week is 44% higher than for the previous week,” the director of the Croatian Public Health Institute, Krunoslav Capak, said.

The current 14-day incidence rate is 273.5 per 100,000 people, the lowest being recorded in Virovitica-Podravina County and the highest in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, where it is 759.9.

Croatia has the eighth lowest incidence rate in the European Union, after Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

In the last 24 hours, Croatia recorded 150 new coronavirus cases and 13 related deaths, including the death of a 60-year-old person who did not have any underlying medical conditions. All the other people who died had comorbidities and their average age was 77.6 years.