Croatia's main Covid hospital, KB Dubrava in Zagreb, reduced the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients due to the improving coronavirus numbers, Health Minister, Vili Beros, said on Thursday.

This also means that the need for medical staff is reduced so that health workers temporarily assigned to KB Dubrava will be allowed to return to their hospitals, Beros said at a cabinet meeting.

The Health Ministry also announced the formation of a commission of experts dedicated to the treatment of patients with chronic problems resulting from having had Covid-19, Beros said.

The commission’s task will be to draft guidelines for the treatment and care and the organisation of post-COVID inpatient and outpatient capacities, with an emphasis on respiratory rehabilitation, psychological, and psychiatric support.

Beros also reported on the ongoing coronavirus vaccination drive, saying that 107,080 doses had been administered by 10 February, including 44,344 people who had received the second vaccine shot.

By 10 February, Croatia has received shipments of 156,450 doses of the three EU-approved vaccines – 122,850 of Pfizer’s, 16,800 of Moderna’s, and 16,800 of AstraZeneca’s. There have been 699 reports of suspected side reactions to the vaccines, but they were mainly found to be “mild.”

Referring to the new coronavirus strain, first identified in the UK, Beros said that Croatia is currently working to develop its own genome sequencing capacities as the country had agreed to send 200 samples to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) every week, with the first batch sent on Tuesday.