Croatian minister rules out new lockdown, curfew

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic (Photo: HINA/ Daniel KASAP/dk)

ZAGREB, Oct 24 (Hina) – Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who is at the helm of Croatia’s COVID-19 crisis management team, said on Saturday that the new restrictions to curb the virus would be outlined on Sunday, and ruled out any new lockdown or overnight curfew.

“We will tomorrow present a new set of measures designed to restrict close contacts, that is any contact within less than two metres in closed space, and less than 1.5 metres outdoors,” Bozinovic said.

He said that imposing the overnight curfew was not on the table and also ruled out any total lockdown.

The Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) has adopted a set of recommendations with the message that the economy should not be brought to a halt and hospitals must continue functioning, he explained.

“All that we are doing is to make restrictions tougher, and our main goal is to maintain the economic activities and some sort of social life, alongside making the healthcare services available to those who need them” the minister added.

Some of the restrictions will be to limit the number of people at private gatherings.

Health Minister Vili Beros commented on the ability of the healthcare system to adapt to the new circumstances.

“It is essential to be rapid and define the priorities,” Beros said.

In the last 24 hours, Croatia has registered 2,242 new coronavirus cases and 16 persons have died, the national COVID response team said on Saturday.

The number of active cases is 9,745, including 731 hospitalised patients, of whom 52 are on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the new virus was first registered in Croatia, 33,959 persons have been infected, including 429 who have died. To date, 23,785 persons have recovered, including 875 in the last 24 hours, and 437,048 have been tested, including 8,087 in the last 24 hours.

Currently, 27,967 persons are self-isolating.