The administration of Covid vaccine to students at schools "could be be organised only if more than 70 percent of students in a classroom express their wish to get vaccinated," state agency Hina said on Wednesday, citing an article published by Vecernji List daily.

“Dijana Mayer, an epidemiologist at the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), was quoted as saying that it was necessary that a representative of the school request mass vaccination in the school and that parents agree with the vaccination. So far, no such formal requests have been made by schools,” Hina said.

To date, roughly 15,000 school-age children have been given at least one shot, and of them 10,000 have fully been vaccinated, according to the HZJZ. By this week, 2,698 children aged 12-14 have been vaccinated, or 2.7 percent of children in this age group, and 35,752 children aged 15-19, or 18 percent.

This year, 532 children under 17 have been hospitalized due to Covid-19, with 102 of them having been admitted to hospital in the past month. In western European countries, the vaccination rate among children is much higher.