ZAGREB, Dec 22, 2020 – Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Tuesday that 55,000 applications had been received for intra-county travel passes, adding that 60% had been processed, of which 60% had been denied.
“About 40% of the applications are justified and passes have been issued,” he told the press.
Bozinovic said a whole spectrum of questions was defined by the decision on travel passes and that many applications were being assessed by county civil protection authorities or the Civil Protection Directorate.
The eventual decision depends on whether the reason stated for requesting a pass to leave a county is considered necessary or unpostponable, he added.
Bozinovic would not say if the terms for obtaining a pass were more strict than those in force during the spring lockdown. He reiterated that the intention was to reduce contacts as much as possible.
He said people were more disciplined in recent weeks and that this was the most important thing for any COVID-19 measure to be successful.
He believes the measures so far have yielded results. “Everything has certainly yielding results. However, it all boils down to whether people will accept the measures. When they are widely accepted, they have a chance to be successful.”
Bozinovic believes the restriction on movement between counties, in force until January 8, will achieve its goal. “Without it, there would have been much more movement these days that there will be.”
“Let’s try to refrain ourselves. The numbers we have now indicate a declining trend and it wouldn’t be good if we had the numbers rising again and the pressure on the healthcare system rising again,” he said.
A combination of responsible and disciplined behaviour as well as refraining from risky and evitable contacts, together with vaccination, should lead to a better epidemiological situation, he added.
The government will present a vaccination plan tomorrow. Bozinovic said everything was ready for the delivery of the first vccine batch on Saturday.
