Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Tuesday addressed the national parliament during a discussion on the Opposition's motion of no confidence against Health Minister Vili Beros to refute the allegations from the motion submitted by 41 Opposition MPs.

“We dismiss your motion in its entirety. Beros will remain minister and the reform (of the healthcare system) will be conducted,” Plenkovic said.

Concerning vaccination against COVID-19, Plenkovic  said that thanks to the government, so far 1.175 million vaccine doses had been administered, and nearly 1.3 million residents had been given the first shot of the vaccine, while a half million people had received both shots.

He recalled that when the global crisis with AstraZeneca vaccine broke out, Croatia managed to pre-order sufficient amounts of vaccines. We have ordered 8.5 million doses for this year, he added.

All those who want to be inoculated, will get vaccinated, and I appeal for inoculation for the sake of the health of vaccinated people and public health in general, Plenkovic said.

In the last 16 months we have dealt with the biggest global crisis in the last 100 years, he said referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had two kinds of protagonists: the parliamentary majority and the government that have fought for health safety, for and keeping jobs, and the other group consisting of those who have signed the motion of no-confidence, and who first dealt with the constitutional foundations of the national COVID-19 crisis management team, then claimed that COVID-19 was like tooth decay or flu, and sent ‘spontaneous’ photos from hospitals to raise questions whether there were enough amounts of protective gear and equipment in hospitals, he said.

Minister Beros said that constructive criticism was welcome, adding however that accusations based on untruths should be condemned.