LATEST: 50 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths, 27 recoveries in Croatia confirmed on Monday

Vili Beros, Davor Bozinovic (Photo credit: HINA/ Admir BULJUBAŠIĆ/ abu)

ZAGREB, April 13 (Hina) – Twenty-five people have died from the novel COVID-19 coronavirus in Croatia and 400 have recovered, Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday, adding that more recoveries were expected in the days ahead.

Over the past 24 hours, 50 new COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in Croatia, bringing the total to 1,650.

Speaking at a press conference, Health Minister Vili Beros said the two fatalities were patients at the Split University Hospital, a woman born in 1941 and a man born in 1973, and both had chronic conditions.

The average age of patients is 49 and 50.7% are women. To date, 17,790 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus, including 1,409 in the past 24 hours.

Thirty-four patients are on ventilators, 356 persons were hospitalised on Sunday, said Beros.

“We have a good percentage of recoveries and we can be satisfied, given that the first patients appeared less than two months ago,” Alemka Markotic, head of Zagreb’s Fran Mihaljevic Infectious Diseases Hospital, said at the daily press conference of the national civil protection authority.

The number of recoveries will increase as a majority of patients have a mild or medium infection, she added.

It’s unknown who brought virus into Split care home

“We don’t know who first brought the virus into the home, perhaps we’ll never find out, but it’s being looked into. Swabs have been taken from 119 residents, 50 of whom are positive, as well as from 80 staff members, 11 of whom are positive,” said Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

Speaking of other nursing homes, he said 12 residents and four of the six staff members in a home in Ploce were infected as were six residents and one staff member in a home in Dubrovnik, one resident of a home in Seget Vranjica, three residents and one staff member in a home in Makarska, one resident and one staff member in a home in Dicmo, and two residents and one staff member in a care home in Koprivnica.

Capak said that as of Tuesday retail shops would again be open until 5 p.m. after they were open until 8 p.m. in the three days before Easter.

“We are watching what’s happening… There were too many people in some places. We’ll insist that farmers’ markets are organised in line with instructions and that they are overseen by sanitary inspectors. If that’s not possible, we’ll have to discuss how to organise farmers’ markets differently, in an epidemiologically acceptable way,” said Capak.

Police working on identification of people who gathered outside Split church

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said the Split-Dalmatia County police were intensely working to identify the people who had gathered outside a church in a Split suburb on Sunday for Easter Mass and hurled insults at members of the press, adding that some would be prosecuted.

Asked to comment on a Mass that was held at the same church this morning despite a ban on public gatherings, Bozinovic said he did not have all the details yet but noted that most believers in Croatia’s 1,6000 parishes had adhered to epidemiological instructions.

Over the past 24 hours, there has been one self-isolation breach and 331 attempts to leave one’s place of residence, which the police stopped, he said.

Bozinovic thanked Red Cross Croatia’s thousands of volunteers who are visiting the socially vulnerable, the elderly and the infirm, bringing them food and medications as well as organising blood donations.

All who did their job in hospitals will be paid for it

Asked about some healthcare workers who had not been paid for overtime work, which is contrary to a Health Ministry recommendation, Minister Beros said the ministry would look into the complaints and that everyone who did their job in hospitals would be paid for it.

“We’ll evaluate the situation and see what to do next. The only right thing is that those who did their job are paid for it,” he added.