"Health Minister Vili Beros on Wednesday announced the possibility that on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve hospitality establishments would be able to work, and outdoor events would be allowed until 2 am," state agency Hina said.

“We have eight cases of infection with the Omicron variant verified, and five are very likely infections with Omicron. The epidemiological situation is calm and I think that we can extend working hours in the night from 24 to 25 December and 31 December to 1 January until 2 am,” Beros said after a session on the inner cabinet.

Beros said this was a suggestion by the national Covid-19 response team which “he hoped would become a reality,” noting that it was up to local Covid-19 response teams to allow outdoor events or not. He said that he was very pleased with the Constitutional Court’s decision of Tuesday about the introduction of mandatory Covid certificates in the health and social welfare systems being “appropriate and non-discriminatory”.

The government’s position on the introduction of Covid passes in the public sector is ready and will be forwarded to the Constitutional Court today or tomorrow, he said, adding that that issue was possibly more complex from the legal point of view but that from the epidemiological point of view, the matter with Covid certificates in the public sector was the same as in the health and social welfare sectors.

“We are preventing the spread of the disease and protecting the lives and health of Croatian citizens. The details differ to some extent and I will allow that from the legal point of view, it is a more complex matter,” he said.

Speaking of the Omicron variant, he said that Croatia had had the privilege of following developments in Western Europe for two or three weeks.

Croatia will be able to wait and watch the clinical effects of the variant in a number of Western European countries for two or three more weeks before adapting its health system, “because January will bring major challenges,” Beros said.

“This is the Christmas and New Year holiday season, the skiing season, many will go abroad and it is important to make them aware that they need to comply with epidemiological rules,” he said.

The minister noted that the cost of the health system for testing, treatment and sick leave, not including the cost of artificial ventilation for Covid patients, amounted to 68 million kuna per week, and that since the start of the pandemic it had risen to 4.439 billion kuna.

He added that his biggest fear was not the financial aspect of the epidemic but rather dealing with an increased number of mental disorders and malignant diseases once the epidemic started to abate, appealing to citizens not to delay their check-ups and noting that if necessary, the private health sector would be asked to step in.

Beros also called on citizens to celebrate the coming holidays by keeping their distance from one another and making sure the virus did not spread.