As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, at the ceremony marking the final completion of the demining of Zadar County, a certificate of complete exclusion from the mine suspected area of the county was formally handed over, writes Dnevnik.hr.
The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, Zadar County Prefect Bozidar Longin and Director of the Civil Protection Directorate Damir Trut, who held a presentation entitled: “Solving the mine problem of Zadar County.”
“Strength, will, skill and courage,” Longin said, adding that eight deminers had tragically died during the demining process.
“We’ll remember all those who worked on demining, on a huge task and a job that was done successfully. “Today, it was a pleasure to submit a certificate on the mine-cleared area,” Davor Bozinovic said. “This is the moment when we remember all the victims,” said Bozinovic, adding that the last person killed was in 2016, and a child also died in 2014.
“We hope to clean everything up by 2026,” the minister said, concluding that seven to eight counties remain with mine issues which need to be resolved. “There are a few mines left in Split-Dalmatia, Sibenik-Knin, mostly in forest and mountainous areas, as well as where battles were fought,” he said, recalling a situation where police rescued migrants from mine danger not so long ago.
Davor Bozinovic handed over the symbolic “last mine” to the mayor of Pakostane, Milivoje Kurtov, because the last demining work was carried out in that area.
Turning to coronavirus and anti-epidemic measures…
As for the New Year, Davor Bozinovic said that at this moment in time they are primarily focused on monitoring the unfolding situation with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“There’s been exponential growth, which is attributed to the new Omicron variant. The Delta variant also spread much more rapidly than the previous strain, and Omicron is now spreading much more quickly than Delta did. We have a mix of these two variants of the virus and we have to take the appropriate precations as a result of it,” Davor Bozinovic stated, citing the issues other European countries such as the United Kingdom are currently facing.
He pointed out that in Dalmatia there is a growth of newly infected across all four counties. “We’re asking people to please stay outdoors as much as possible. Enclosed spaces are a big danger. We’ve had several cases across Europe where Omicron has easily infected people indoors,” the minister warned.
“South Africa has a much younger population and it’s summer there. We know that then the virus spreads less. We’re now entering the winter period, more and more people will be spending a lot of time indoors and it’s extremely important that everyone takes care of themselves and doesn’t underestimate the situation at hand,” he warned.
He said that new anti-epidemic measures have now been adopted and given the situation across Europe, and at the minute they cannot make concessions. “If the numbers don’t keep on increasing and if the trend of a slight decline continues – then we can talk. All I can say now is please be irresponsible because nobody knows what will happen in the next few days,” he said, pointing out that no one, not even experts, can say for sure what will happen.
“The fact is that we have a certain number of cases and judging by everything we’ve learned so far, it’s more realistic to expect that there are more cases than less,” Davor Bozinovic said about the new Omicron variant. “We need to wait and see if these big European numbers lead to more hospitalisations,” the minister said.
He said that the best suggestion is for the New Year to be celebrated outdoors in as much as is possible and that those who are religious watch the mass when it is broadcast on television.
“It’s safer for everyone,” Davor Bozinovic concluded.
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