Health Minister Vili Beros told the parliament on Wednesday that he was satisfied with how the government and competent authorities had dealt with the coronavirus epidemic from mid-January to the end of May 2020.

“The government and relevant agencies made decisions in a timely and efficient manner to the benefit of the functionality of all the systems, aimed at protecting the life and health of the nation,” the minister said while informing lawmakers about the effects of the implementation of the measures in compliance with the legislation on the protection of the population against contagious diseases in the above-mentioned period.

“Patients were not denied access to appropriate health services at any time,” he said.

Rovinj – champion in COVID vaccination

The minister called for inoculation of the population against the coronavirus infection, and said that for instance, in the city of Zagreb, more than a half of residents had been immunised while in the coastal city of Rovinj as many as 80% of the local community had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

He went on to say, that Croatia had ordered 8.8 million doses and an additional 10  million doses for 2023.

Commenting on the immunisation of healthcare workers, he said that 71.9% of them had been fully vaccinated and 81.2% had received at least one dose.

When it comes to the COVID seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 population, Croatia currently ranks 13th in the EU with the latest incidence rate of 14.9.

The minister pointed out the risks caused by new variants of the novel virus. The sequencing of 188 samples have shown that 54.1% are the Alpha variant and 43% Delta, he added.

Beroš said that in the above-mentioned period, the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) incurred costs of HRK 927 million for testing, spent HRK 931 for treatment of this disease and 132 million kuna for the procurement of vaccines.

(€1 = HRK 7.48)