Due to a low vaccination rate, Croatia for now cannot consider lifting some of the Covid restrictions, and medical professionals continue to recommend compliance with the epidemiological measures in place to contain the virus, Health Minister Vili Beros said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

He was commenting on plans by countries such as the United Kingdom and Israel, which have high vaccination rates, to lift the restrictions and the Covid pass mandate. He warned that in Croatia, a considerable number of people aged 75 and over were still unvaccinated.

Despite the surge in the number of new infections, for now there has been no increase in the number of Covid hospitalizations, so health care is also available to non-Covid patients, the health minister said.

“Today, 1,792 infected persons are being treated in hospitals, four fewer than yesterday. The Covid bed occupancy rate is 53.4 per cent, which allows for other patients to be provided with the necessary health care as well,” Beros said.

Croatia today registered a record 17,489 new Covid cases, with the PCR test positivity rate reaching 51.44 per cent and the rapid antigen test positivity rate 18.82 per cent. The number of Covid patients on ventilators today is 195, nine fewer than on Wednesday.

Beros said that 18.63 per cent of the total population had received a booster vaccine dose.

He noted that people being admitted to hospitals with the Omicron variant of the virus were mostly elderly and unvaccinated with other underlying conditions.

He said that the latest data published by the European Medicines Agency showed that mRNA Covid vaccines were safe during pregnancy.

The head of the national Covid response team, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, said that the travel ban on arrivals from South Africa and other African countries where the Omicron variant first appeared had been lifted given that this variant has become dominant in Croatia and Europe.