The Croatian Nursing Council (HKMS) on Tuesday again called on its members to get vaccinated against COVID-19, noting that the current vaccination rate among nurses of 71% was not satisfactory.

“Nurses, just like other health workers, have to be responsible towards themselves, their families as well as the patients they care for,” HKMS president Mario Gazic said, calling on those who have not been vaccinated to do so.

He stressed that it was evident that additional education about vaccination was necessary for nurses.

“Vaccination is the only way out of the epidemic which Croatia has been fighting for a year and a half. Its benefits far outweigh possible side effects and there is no doubt that it prevents more difficult forms of the disease, the need for assisted ventilation and death,” Gazic said.

As for vaccination rates among medical institutions, Zagreb’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases has the highest rate, more than 90%, as do the Hospital for Children’s Diseases in Zagreb and the hospitals in Nova Gradiska and Varazdinske Toplice.

Around 8,000 nurses were infected with COVID-19 and they are waiting to get their first dose of the vaccine, the HKMS said.