Health Minister Vili Beros said on Thursday that new Covid cases and hospital admissions were on the decline compared with last week however there is still a significant number of Covid patients in intensive care.

“The share of new cases to those tested in the past 24 hours is 34.11% and compared to 14 days ago that is a decrease of 13.5 percentage points,” the minister said at a regular cabinet meeting, adding that more than 80% of hospitalized patients weren’t vaccinated.

More and more patients are feeling consequences after having recovered from Covid and currently, there are 45,000 patients with post-Covid symptoms.

448,529 have given booster dose

Beros informed that 4.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered so far and 66.05 % of the population have been vaccinated including 448,529 people who have received a third, booster dose.

“In the week behind us, we noticed a mild fall in the number of new infections however the statistics of unvaccinated people in hospital treatment is constant and the shift towards younger ages is visible,” he said.

Working hours for hospitality sector extended to 2 am from 24 to 31 December

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who  heads the national Covid response team, said that following talks on Wednesday with the hospitality sector, the decision had been adopted to allow them to work until 2 am between 24. and 31 December.

That, however, does not mean that they do not have to adhere to all other epidemiological measures, he added.

Outdoor gatherings of more than 100 people without a Covid certificate is possible if that is approved by the county public health institute, and that on the most part refers to outdoor New Year’s Eve celebrations.