Each hospital in the country will have its own COVID ward, and the new organisation of the health care system ahead of the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic will be defined by the health ministry' s expert task force which will hold a meeting on this topic today, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Wednesday.

Hospitalisations have been steadily increasing in recent days and on Tuesday, 330 patients infected with the novel coronavirus were treated in hospitals, 44 of whom were placed on ventilators.

The Dubrava hospital in the eastern part of Zagreb had been serving as a COVID hospital until the beginning of the summer, and 350,000 people who had fallen within the remit of that hospital before the outbreak had to be redirected to other hospitals throughout the city. Also, some of the staff from hospitals that did not admit COVID patients were transferred to the Dubrava hospital, which also affected the work of those health institutions.

With COVID vaccines that have upgraded the protection against this virus infection and with more experience gained in the treatment of COVID patients since early 2020, heads of hospitals say that everything is now ready for handling a new wave of the pandemic.

The Zagreb-based Dr. Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases is currently treating 69 COVID patients, of whom 10 are placed on ventilators. The hospital’s representatives were quoted by the daily as saying that the lion’s share of those patients are persons who have not got vaccinated.