Croatian cafes open their indoor areas after a nine-month closure

According to the new rules announced by the national Covid-19 task force, cafes and restaurants can only stay open until midnight at the latest, customers must be seated while drinking and eating, and they also must wear face masks when moving about the premises. Masks are also mandatory for waiters.

In late November 2020, authorities ordered cafes to close their indoor seating areas, allowing only those with outdoors seating areas to operate.

Catering establishments have been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis over the past 18 months.

"Many have been exhausted physically, psychologically and financially. There are cafes that will not be able to operate indoors because they lack staff, and there are also those that do not have outdoor seating, so it will be a little easier for them after they had been closed for nine months," the head of the independent association of cafe and restaurant owners from Zagreb, Zaklina Troskot, told state agency Hina.

She added that about 1,100 businesses in the industry would probably never reopen due to restrictions imposed since the pandemic started, and that this translates to about 10,000 lost jobs.