The Health Ministry said on Thursday that five ventilators had been urgently secured for the hospital in Varazdin, after the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for Varazdin county head, Barbara Antolic-Vupora, said the hospital was short of ventilators.

The ministry said that as soon as the Varazdin General Hospital said it was short of three ventilators, it had immediately secured five from two Zagreb hospitals.

“I thank the opposition for the concern. Our patients have not been without ventilators even one moment, notably during the COVID-19 epidemic, and they won’t be now either,” said Minister Vili Beros.

Hospitals are successfully coping with all the needs posed by the care for COVID patients and the ministry is constantly in touch with hospital directors, coordinators on the ground and local crisis management teams, he added.

Antolic-Vupora said on Thursday the situation in the Varazdin hospital was alarming and that, due to the shortage of ventilators, doctors would have to choose who to use them for. She added that she had asked the government to secure HRK 2 million to buy new ventilators for the hospital but that she was “flatly turned down.”