As numbers of active coronavirus cases increase in Croatia, hospitals are facing mounting pressure, including the country's main Covid-19 hospital, KB Dubrava in Zagreb, which treated 420 Covid patients on Wednesday, including 75 placed on ventilators.

The head of KB Dubrava, Ivica Luksic, told state agency Hina on Wednesday that the pressure on this Covid hospital had intensified in recent days.

Luksic said that there was recently a surge in patients aged 40-60, and doctors and nurses from other hospitals in Zagreb have been sent to help deal with the situation.

He added that for the time being “there is no need to repurpose the Arena sports and concert hall into a makeshift Covid ward,” and explained that in this third wave of the pandemic, younger patients needed shorter periods to recover meaning that they can be discharged from hospitals somewhat sooner.

The Zagreb-based Fran Mihaljevic Hospital for Infectious Diseases is currently operating at full capacity. The head of that hospital, Alemka Markotic, said that she believed the pressure on hospitals would last “a few more weeks.”