Some Croatian Health Workers Protest Over Mandatory COVID-19 Certificates

Around 30 health workers who do not have the now mandatory COVID-19 vaccination certificates, and refuse to be tested, gathered in Croatia's capital, Zagreb, on Monday, protesting against the requirement, Index reported.

The new rules comes into force as numbers of coronavirus cases steadily rise. Croatia registered 944 new infections and 14 COVID-19-related deaths on Sunday, the national crisis management team reported.

The numbers for Monday were slightly lower, with 219 new cases, but fewer facilities do tests on Sundays. The head of Croatia's Public Health Institute, HZJZ, Krunoslav Capak, said on Friday that Croatia had registered an 11-per-cent increase in new COVID cases compared to the week before, and 78.8 per cent of these new cases were people who were not vaccinated.

The news agency HINA meanwhile reported that Interior Minister Davor Božinović had announced on Sunday that everything was ready for the introduction of mandatory EU digital COVID certificates in the healthcare and social care sectors.

On September 28, Croatia's national COVID-19 crisis management team decided that vaccine certificates would be mandatory from October 4 onwards for those employed in the health and social care sectors who have not been vaccinated or do not have a certificate that they had COVID-19.

Starting Monday, they would have to be tested at least twice over seven days or won't be able to come to work.

Enforcement of the measure, supervised by Health Minister Vili Beroš on Monday, met protests in the capital, Zagreb, and in the country's second largest city, Split, however.

Protesters in Split shouted insults at the head of KBC Split Hospital, Julije Meštrović and Dr Jugoslav Bagatin, head of the hospital Management Board...