The distribution of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus single-dose vaccine can be expected in Croatia in early April, the head of Zagreb's Fran Mihaljevic hospital for infectious diseases, Alemka Markotic, said on Sunday evening.

Asked by the commercial NOVA TV broadcaster whether Croatia is facing the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Markotic said that the developments in Croatia’s neighbourhood and in Europe “are followed with the closest attention.”

“The numbers are rapidly rising. Each country is trying to take care of its specific features and act accordingly,” the doctor said adding that Croatia is currently among the countries that are faring best against COVID.

Markotic said that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) tried to give some common guidelines, however, everybody assessed that their respective countries had too many differences and specific features.

“(Anti-epidemic) measures are important, we should adhere to them so as to keep the things at bay,” Markotic said.

She added that on Monday a team of Croatian researchers would present findings of a study about the efficacy of the second shot of two-dose vaccines. The research has been conducted in Croatia.

The findings show that a high antibody titer was produced by some organisms after they received the second dose of the COVID vaccination, she said.