Coronavirus in Croatia: Health system successfully coping with pressure

Health Minister Vili Beros (Photo: HINA/ Daniel KASAP/ dk / POOL)

ZAGREB, Nov 5 (Hina) – Health Minister Vili Beros said at a government session on Thursday that the pressure on the health system because of the corona crisis was strong, but that the health system was successfully dealing with it and had capacities ready for all scenarios.

“We continue to get great help from citizens whose behaviour can affect how the infection will continue to spread,” Beros said.

He said that public opinion polls had shown that citizens were mostly not for a complete lockdown and that most citizens continued to support measures and decisions by the national COVID-19 response team.

The number of active cases is 15,356, including 1,278 hospitalised patients, of whom 122 are on ventilators. There are 930 cases of the infection among health workers, and 965 are in self-isolation.

Lately, the average number of coronavirus tests performed in a day has been 8,152, and 27.28% return positive.

According to Beros, the main goal is to strengthen the health system so that the virus does not spread to other hospitals and so that other patients could receive adequate health care.

For now, 111 health workers from other health institutions have been transferred to the KB Dubrava hospital in Zagreb, which has been admitting only COVID patients since November 2.

On Tuesday, antigen tests were introduced in Zagreb, Beros said.

Final-year medical students and 157 doctors working under supervision are helping epidemiologists.

High number of new cases recorded today, but numbers not doubling

In the past 24 hours, Croatia registered a record 2,848 new coronavirus cases and 29 deaths, the national COVID response team said on Thursday.

Since February 25, when the new virus was first registered in Croatia, 59,415 persons have been infected, of whom 683 have died and 43,376 recovered, including 2,306 in the past 24 hours.

Currently, 31,677 persons are self-isolating. To date, 532,288 persons have been tested, including 8,906 in the past 24 hours.

The increase this week is 22%, Beros told reporters after a government session.

The number of patients in hospitals is on the rise, as is the number of fatalities, which is expected as those numbers follow the increase in new cases.

Beros said he would talk with representatives of doctors’ associations which yesterday called for the introduction of stricter measures against coronavirus.

I fully understand their demand, but we must achieve a balance between maintaining the economy and doing what is most important to preserve health, he said.

He said that some countries had introduced a complete lockdown yet they had not seen a decrease in the number of new infections.

Beros thanked primary care doctors for becoming involved in tracing the contacts of persons infected with coronavirus.

Commenting on the opposition’s demand for his resignation, Beros said that he was doing everything he could to fight the epidemic, adding that in the end everything he has done will be analysed.