At the proposal of Sinj Mayor Miro Bulj, the head of the town's civil protection, Denis Bobeta, has signed a decision recommending that elementary and secondary school pupils and teachers need not wear a mask, the city said on Wednesday.

In his proposal, Bulj said the obligation to wear a mask in elementary and secondary schools was of questionable use given that pupils who were obliged to wear a mask during classes socialised without them during recess, not complying with any COVID rules.

In August, ahead of the Sinjska Alka tournament and the Assumption of Mary, Bulj asked the national COVID crisis management team to ease the COVID rules on those two occasions, saying that gatherings in other towns were not a problem “as though corona lives only in Sinj.”

After Health Minister Vili Beros said infections in Sinj between 12 and 25 August had jumped by 465%, Bulj said that at the same time the government was boasting about record-high tourist numbers and that Sinj was being ridiculed and stigmatised.