Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that "definitely there vaccination against Covid-19 would not be made mandatory" and that the government wanted to encourage as many citizens as possible to get vaccinated, state agency Hina reported.

During his visit to the northern town of Cakovec, Plenkovic said that “the purpose of the discussions about vaccination was to show how important it was to be immunised.”

Plenkovic backtracked from the idea floated earlier this month when he hinted that vaccination might be made a mandatory precondition for businesses wishing to apply for the government’s Covid subsidized salary scheme.

“So far half of all adults in the European Union has received two shots of Covid-19 vaccines. In Croatia, 46 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, with more and more Croatians getting the second shot,” Plenkovic said.

However, he added that “there are ongoing discussions” about making vaccination mandatory “in some sectors,” for instance in health care. About 80 percent of all physicians had been vaccinated, with a “somewhat lower” percentage among nurses and other health care workers. “But we are seeing some progress,” Plenkovic said.

Also, staff at nursing homes and homes for senior citizens are likely to be made fully-vaccinated, Hina said, and added that the third sector mentioned is education, i.e. schools.

“There are various ways to encourage people to get vaccinated. We are currently considering a set of measures (to do that),” Plenkovic said.