Out of 350 coronavirus samples collected in Croatia and sent for genetic sequencing at the ECDC, 99 turned out to be positive to the so-called British strain. Another two were positive for the African strain and another four for the strain identified in New York, Health Minister, Vili Beros, said in a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Croatian’s public health authority HZJZ had sent the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) some 10 percent of the positive coronavirus samples detected in Croatia in February, as part of the EU-wide effort to monitor and suppress the spread of new, more potent, virus strains.

So far, the results for 350 of about 1,000 samples from Croatia had come in, Beros said.

“In the past two weeks we are again recording an increase in the weekly numbers of new cases. The number of active cases is now 24 percent week-on-week. The number of hospitalized patients is still going down though. However, the number of patients requiring hospital care usually follows the numbers of new cases, albeit with some delay,” he told the cabinet.

In total, 318,680 doses of various Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in Croatia so far, and 242,666 doses have already been used, with 121,330 people getting at least one shot, and 60,668 people getting two. Croatia has a population of around 4 million.