The Croatian epidemiological measures put in place to try to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which made its first appearance in Croatia back in the February of 2020, have always been extremely mild in comparison to other countries across Europe.
In comparison to the likes of the United Kingdom, which, until the arrival of the new Omicron variant, had dropped more or less all of its measures, and Austria, which is set to make vaccination against the novel coronavirus mandatory, the Republic of Croatia’s residents have fared quite well.
As Croatian residents are now being asked to do much more than simply wear a mask when being close to others, including needing to present a valid EU covid certificate in order to enter social care and healthcare facilities, as well as public and state administration buildings, it isn’t surprising that there have been fines issued to those who have an issue with the oldest requirement of the pandemic – mask wearing.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, ever since the introduction of the obligation to wear masks indoors and when using public transport in Croatia, a requirement which came in a little over a year ago, a fine of 500 kuna had to be paid by just under 1,500 Croatian residents. Twice as many people have had to be verbally warned for not wearing a mask.
Recommendations for those using public transport have been in force since last year. “It would be ideal for people to be able to keep distance of one or two metres between each other, for passengers to try to sit in a sort of zigzagging fashion. That there is one passenger in each row, that about 40 percent of the capacity is filled and that everyone wears their masks properly. I would recommend FPP2 masks because they are much better. Covid passports are not being checked, they aren’t obligatory for people travelling on public transport, but it would be ideal for them to be used,” believes Dijana Mayer, an epidemiologist working at the the Croatian Institute of Public Health, who said the above in conversation with RTL.
While anyone who has ever used a tram during rush hour in the City of Zagreb will know very well that the above request is all but totally impossible to achieve, it leaves the question of Croatia potentially following the example of several other countries as far as EU covid certificates are concerned and widening their use.
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