Quarantine in Croatia will be extended to last 14 days instead of ten, the head of the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) Krunoslav Capak said on Friday, adding that in the first five days of this week, the number of new coronavirus infections was almost 35% higher than in the same period of last week.

“In the first five days of this week, 2,152 new infections were reported while in the same period of last week there were 1,597 new infections, which is a weekly increase of close to 35%,” Capak said at a news conference held by the national COVID-19 response team.

He said that new instructions would soon be published, under which the period of quarantine would again last 14 days. He stressed that quarantine had been shortened because of the need for medical workers to return to work as soon as possible.

“We are reintroducing 14-day quarantine because most health workers and employees of aged care homes have been immunised, the number of infections (in that group) is smaller, and we do not know how many cases of the British variant of the virus there are in the population, so we believe quarantine should again last 14 days,” Capak said, adding that the HZJZ would most probably publish the new instructions later today.

Commenting on schools in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, where the 14-day incidence is highest in the country, switching against to online classes, Capak said that it was logical the local COVID-19 response team had resorted to such a decision, in consultation with the schools’ founders.

Capak also believes the latest increase in the number of new infections is not part of a third wave of the epidemic but rather part of the second wave.