Croatia's health authorities reported on Friday that 1,091 new cases of the coronavirus and 8 Covid-related deaths have been recorded in the country over the previous 24 hours. These figures, which reached a seven-month low, point to the diminishing prevalence of the virus.

The rolling seven-day case count now stands at 7,030 – or on average 1,004 per day, a 23-percent drop compared to the seven days prior. The 14-day case count is now 16,137, or 1,152 cases per day, nearly 22 percent down from the the previous two-week period, indicating that case count is stabilizing back to levels from early October.

As for deaths, on Friday the rolling seven-day death count was 76, down from 89 deaths reported in the week prior. There are currently 8,040 active cases in the country, including 564 Covid patients in hospital care – the lowest figure since mid-September.

To date, Croatia has registered more than one million coronavirus cases, and the total pandemic-related death toll now stands at 15,660. This amounts to an average of 20.3 deaths per day since the first case was detected in Croatia on February 25, 2020.

Some 2.31 million Croatians have received at least one shot of any Covid-19 vaccine to date, which health authorities say translates to 59.4 percent of the country’s entire population. This is the calculation released by health authorities which project the current population size at 3.88 million, in line with the results from the 2021 census results released in January.

This figure includes close to 2.24 million Croatians who have been fully immunized against the disease, which health services now say translates to around 68.6 percent of all adults, implying that there are currently some 3.26 million Croatians aged 18 and above living in the country.

Although the vaccination numbers have been pretty much unchanged for some time now, the slight increase in percentages from earlier this month seems to have come from a change in methodology, as up until recently the authorities used outdated estimates saying that the country has close to 4.1 million people, including 3.4 million adults.

Even though the vaccines are widely available and free of charge, the interest in vaccines among pandemic-fatigued Croatians is reportedly very low – on Thursday authorities reported that only 925 vaccine shots had been administered that day in the entire country, including 125 first-timers. Booster shots have been available since December, but authorities do not include these statistics in their daily reports.

The daily numbers come from official reports which only account for cases confirmed by PCR tests and which are reported daily to the World Health Organization and other international agencies. Positive results detected via rapid antigen testing (RATs), including at-home tests, are reported and tracked via a separate registry. These are sometimes leaked to the local media who conflate these with officially confirmed figures, creating considerable discrepancies in their reporting.

Due to the low intensity of reported cases, the government announced scrapping of nearly all pandemic rules still in place, including mandatory face masks in public and Covid passes, effective from midnight tonight. However, face masks will still be required at select places, such as hospitals and retirement homes. As for border restrictions, travelers from EU countries will be allowed entry with no restrictions, whereas non-EU visitors will still be required to present proof of vaccination.