“Since last Monday, members of the Split-Dalmatia County Red Cross have been working on setting up the Spaladium Arena so that when larger quantities of vaccines arrive, it can be ready to welcome the start of large-scale vaccination. We have arranged 20 cubicles in which people will be vaccinated, which are needed to have a little privacy when getting vaccinated. As far as we are concerned, everything will be prepared by the end of this week at the latest,” said Joško Metličić, the new director of the Split-Dalmatia County Red Cross, for Slobodna Dalmacija.
Only those who have been scheduled for vaccination will be able to come to the Spaladium Arena.
“At a specific hour, a certain number of people will be scheduled, who will be called and released to the Arena, where they will sit in prepared places and wait their turn for vaccination. Those who, say, are scheduled at 11 am will not be vaccinated at 9 if they come to the vaccination site two hours earlier. So, the order will have to be respected according to the list and according to the schedule,” says Metličić.
Željka Karin, director of the Institute of Public Health of the Split-Dalmatia County, said we could start with large-scale vaccination as early as next week.
“We still don’t know how much and which vaccine we will get next week. We received about six thousand doses of PfizerBiontech and AstraZeneca vaccines this week, and Moderna did not come, although it was announced. We distributed all the obtained vaccines to family doctors and special duty points, where people are also vaccinated. How many people have been vaccinated with those six thousand doses so far? We don’t know yet. However, I think that next week we should not receive less than six thousand doses,” says Dr. Karin.
Interest in vaccination is high.
“People are calling; they want to get vaccinated. If we had sufficient quantities of vaccines, we in Split-Dalmatia County would quickly vaccinate the population. We would have a satisfactory number of vaccinated by June this year at the latest. But for now, unfortunately, the vaccine is not in sufficient quantities. Next week we could put Spaladium Arena into operation to see if everything will work well and so that we can, if there are any shortcomings, fix those shortcomings so that it is ready for the real mass vaccination, which I expect in mid-March,” explains Dr. Karin.
The number of cases in Split-Dalmatia County started to grow, connected with several events where groups of people were noticed (family celebrations, socializing in apartments).
“In the last two days, we have a slight decline, and I want to believe that there will continue to be a decline in the number of new infections. But when the terraces of catering facilities open, if the numbers start to go wild again, they will need to think about a possible closure again because it won’t make sense. I believe that it is in everyone’s interest to have a tourist season, and I believe that it is in the interest of all private individuals who have restaurants and cafes to work over the summer. Therefore, I ask everyone and call on everyone to take responsibility and to respect all epidemiological measures, so that they would not be surprised and so that sometime in April they would not be forced to close catering facilities again,” concluded Željka Karin.
To read more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.
