By Sunday, March 21, Croatia had used 390,657 doses of coronavirus vaccine. A total of 311,448 people have been vaccinated, including 79,209 who received both doses and are considered fully inoculated, the country's Covid-19 task force reported on Monday.

Croatia has a population of around 4 million.

Drug regulator Halmed has so far received 1,896 reports of suspected side effects of the vaccines, including 1,064 for Pfizer, 108 for Moderna and 722 for AstraZeneca. Apparently in two cases it was not clear which vaccine caused the side effects.

The head of Croatia’s public health institute, Krunoslav Capak, said that the vaccination process was continuing according to plan, adding that the “first third of the second phase” of vaccination – covering persons older than 65 years and patients with chronic conditions – had been completed.

He said that younger people would be prioritized next after the completion of the second phase.

Capak said Croatia had so far ordered 8.7 million doses of vaccine from different manufacturers, adding that larger deliveries are expected in the second quarter of the year. The average age of infected people has decreased from 49.9 to 42.5 years, Capak said.

The director of Zagreb’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotic, said that the number of hospitalizations was increasing in Croatia’s two largest cities Zagreb and Split, and that most of those hospitalized are between 50 and 60 years of age.