"Health Minister Vili Beros said on Friday a decision was made under which family doctors would contact their patients over 65 in the next fortnight about getting vaccinated because 31.3 percent of people in that age group have not been vaccinated against Covid," state news agency Hina said.

The most vulnerable persons, those over 65, are the priority in protection from Covid, he said at a press conference of the national Covid-19 crisis management team, adding that 40 percent of those over 80 have not been vaccinated either.

If doctors fail to contact their patients over 65 in the next fortnight, they should visit them at home, or have a district nurse do so, in the next 30 days, and then report to the ministry about what they have achieved. Those infirm should be vaccinated at home.

Beros appealed to the elderly to get vaccinated. “Vaccination saves lives and it is our obligation to enable it.”

He said 97 of the 177 persons over 65 who died of Covid this past week had not been vaccinated.

However, he said, interest in vaccination is growing and almost 6,000 of the 13,292 vaccinated yesterday received their first shot, the highest number since late July. Week on week it was an increase of 34.5 percent, and of 51.8 percent when compared with two weeks ago.

Croatian Institute of Public Health director Krunoslav Capak said there were 48.8 percent more new cases today than a week ago.

In the past 24 hours, 26 of the 32 Covid patients who ended up on ventilators and 20 of the 26 who died were not vaccinated.

The head of Zagreb’s infectious diseases hospital, Alemka Markotic, told women who planned to get pregnant to get vaccinated or to do so after giving birth.

Asked why Covid certificates were not required more widely, the head of the crisis management team, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, said the certificates offered a certain security but could not be a replacement for vaccination, adding that only vaccination could result in the pandemic abating.

“We are trying to do our best to have people vaccinated. We are thinking more and more about not limiting Covid certificates only to those vaccinated. We will also look at when they were vaccinated.”

No one is considering another lockdown, but citizens must understand that this is a situation we will not get rid off anytime soon, Bozinovic said.