The Croatian Institute of Public Health (HIJZ) on Saturday called for stepping up the vaccination campaign in the country to increase safety against COVID-19.

Although 1.5 million vaccinated people is a large number, we would be safer at the start of the tourism season if this number was higher, which is why the vaccination campaign should be accelerated. Delaying vaccination even for a few days can trigger a series of unfavourable developments,” HZJZ director Krunoslav Capak said.

By Friday, 2 July, 1,500,932 people in Croatia have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 1,132,263 of them have received two doses. An additional 23,240 persons have received the Jannsen vaccine, which requires only one dose, which means that vaccination has been completed for 1,155,503 people, the HZJZ said in a statement, adding that 37 percent of the total population and 45 percent of the adult population have received one dose.

Capak said that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, 360,067 cases have been registered and the death toll has reached 8,212. This leads to the conclusion that one in 44 persons in which COVID-19 has been identified dies, he added.

Citing a report by the HALMED regulator, 4,115 suspected side-effects of COVID-19 vaccines have been reported to date, of which 76 percent have been found not to be serious, and to date HALMED has not received any report of a side effect that resulted in death which was found to have been caused by a COVID vaccine, Capak said.

“These figures best show that the vaccines are safe, so we appeal to the people who have not yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated,” Capak said.