Croatian president makes statement on coronavirus outbreak 

Zoran Milanovic (Photo credit: Office of the President/Flickr)

ZAGREB, 13 March 2020 – Croatian president Zoran Milanovic has addressed the public regarding the coronavirus outbreak this afternoon, Jutarnji list writes.

Croatia’s Minister of Health Vili Beros and his team of experts have been in charge of decision making regarding the COVID-19 outbreak in Croatia. On Friday, the president addressed the media from the Office of the President for the first time. 

“This is a delicate question. I still believe my intervention would cause confusion, but I feel I have an obligation to say something. I am talking to the prime minister, I am informed about everything and not one mistake has been made so far,” Milanovic said, before adding. 

“In this unpleasant situation, luck plays a factor. When we see what happened in Italy, especially in the developed northern part, that is where luck plays a part, but also preventative action and analysis,” the president said, adding that it would be a reality in Croatia that over the next two weeks people would be socialising less.

Milanovic, who is closely following the situation, added that he did not think the situation would slip into a bigger panic, but that it was not a bad decision for people to stock up on essentials for two to three days for the home to reduce the number of visits to the shops.

He also supported the decision on Friday to close all schools. 

“You can’t just lock people into their homes, but we will need to socialise less, interact with other people less, anyone beyond our family nucleus,” he said. 

As of Friday morning in Croatia, there were a total of 31 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, whilst 525 patients were waiting for test results to come back. 

The confirmed cases so far were reported in the cities of Zagreb, Pula, Umag, Poreč, Rijeka, Varazdin and Sisak. 

“We have no signs of local transmission of the virus, which is a good sign at the moment. We are monitoring the situation from hour to hour and we are ready to react with new measures if it gets worse,” said Minister of Health Vili Beros.