As the coronavirus situation evolves, so do the measures. As Index writes on the 29th of June, 2020, the Chief of the National Civil Protection Headquarters, Davor Bozinovic, announced the opening of borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina, ie the abolition of the mandatory two-week self-isolation for those entering Croatia from BiH, and the decision should be made tomorrow.
The elections are, let us remind you, this Sunday.
“We’re in the phase of dancing with the virus, we’re analysing everything on a daily basis. The EU will probably come out with recommendations, these talks are underway today. We’ll probably liberalise the border crossing regime to some extent when it comes to EU citizens and for the citizens our neighbourring countries, meaning that those entering the Republic of Croatia will need to adhere to our epidemiological measures, but the obligation of self-isolation for those coming from BiH would no longer be in force. I expect that no later than tomorrow,” said Bozinovic.
“Our decisions are in accordance with the Croatian constitution”
He also commented on the procedure of the Constitutional Court, which will examine whether the decisions of the Headquarters on the coronavirus measures were in accordance with the Constitution.
“The government has repeatedly said that our decisions are in accordance with the Constitution and the law. We’ve answered inquiries, we will continue to answer them. We passed a law so that the Headquarters could be operational as soon as possible and start making decisions during the first coronavirus outbreak. In an express procedure, the parliament authorised the National Civil Protection Headquarters to make the decisions in regard to the coronavirus pandemic,” explained Bozinovic.
“All decisions are made based on [experts from] the profession”
“The results are a consequence of the fact that all decisions were made on the basis of the profession. As for the Headquarters, every decision was made by the profession, and behind the criticism I didn’t see any epidemiologists, not even those who are members of SDP,” he said.
In regard to potential new anti-coronavirus measures
He also commented on the larger number of coronavirus patients in Croatia and the introduction of possible new measures.
“More or less, all countries have opened up. We’ll put out hotspots where they appear, but if we have local hotspots, it doesn’t mean that measures should be applied throughout the country. The goal is to adopt balanced measures, I believe we’ll show again that this is not the Swedish model, there are drastic differences in the results between Croatia and Sweden. There is no data that there are people with difficult clinical pictures currently, nor is anyone on a respirator in Croatia,” Bozinovic said.
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