Health Minister Vili Beros said on Thursday that although the epidemiological situation in Croatia continued to be stable, an increasing number of people have been diagnosed with post-Covid syndrome, i.e. health conditions still present after recovering from a coronavirus infection.

More than 1,000 post-Covid patients have been processed by 1 February and they mainly required the care of pulmonologists, cardiologists and other internists as well as neurologists and psychiatrists, Beroš said at a cabinet meeting.

The gravest patients with post-Covid syndrome are hospitalised, while the majority are treated in post-Covid or other specialised outpatient facilities.

Due to more and more such cases, day hospitals in six medical centres serve only for the treatment of patients after acute Covid-19.

Beros said a research was being considered to find out the extent, incidence and duration of this syndrome because little was known about it.

The number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is decreasing on a weekly basis. The number of active cases has dropped to below 3,000, a decrease of 46% over the past month.

In the past 24 hours, 8.70% of the tests have come back positive.

Speaking of vaccines, Beroš said Croatia received 104,130 doses of Pfizer’s and 8,400 of Moderna’s between 27 December and 3 February, during which time 91,956 doses were administered, while 32,642 people also received the second shot.

To date 46,271 doses have been administered in hospitals, 37,046 in care homes and 7,874 in earthquake-hit Sisak-Moslavina County. Also, 535 milder side effects have been reported.

Beros said a delivery of larger quantities of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the European Medicines Agency approved last Friday, was expected in the shortest time possible.

He said that under new epidemiological instructions for care homes, residents who received both vaccine shots or recovered from Covid-19 could leave the premises.