The mutations were found in a 50-year-old man and a 3.5-year-old child from Zagreb and a 34-year-old man from Slavonski Brod-Posavina County, the national COVID-19 crisis management team told a press conference.
Awaiting confirmatory test
According to preliminary data, eight more cases of infection with that strain of virus have been found in samples taken in the second half of January, which the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) has sent for sequencing to a laboratory in Spain.
"We are still waiting for the confirmatory test to be done. That preliminary information came yesterday, but we know that the samples were taken in the second half of January, which means that we already had the new variant then," said the head of HZJZ's Service for Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, Bernard Kaić.
Epidemiological treatment of cases in which the new strain of virus has been confirmed is in progress, but there is still no significant increase in the number of infections that could be linked to this new strain, the press conference was told.
Kaić said that this pointed to the importance of identifying all contacts of patients in order to minimise the spread of the new variant.
Health Minister Vili Beroš said that the British strain of coronavirus discovered in Croatia posed a certain threat but that it remained to be seen how much of a threat it was.
Asked whether the emergence of the new strain would stop the expected relaxation of anti-epidemic measures, Interior Minister Davor Božinović said it was a complex matter, which the government's Scientific Council, as well as members of the government, would discuss in the coming days.
"Despite this sporadic approach to sequencing we can say that the new variant is to some extent dispersed throughout Croatia and it is to be expected that there will be more of that," he said, noting that this should be taken seriously but that there was no reason for panic.
However, he added that this fact, as well as low temperatures in Croatia by the end of March, would be taken into consideration when making the decision on epidemiological measures, as the current ones expire on 15 February. He underscored that the number of new infections was dropping despite the fact that the new strain had been in Croatia since 15 January.
"A decision will be made that must be rational when it comes to protecting life and health and economic activity," Božinović said.
The team stressed that the new strain was spreading faster and that it was necessary to comply with the measures in place to prevent an explosive spread that happened in Ireland, Portugal and other countries.
"A high dose of caution is still needed," the director of Zagreb's Infectious Diseases Hospital, Alemka Markotić, underscored.
According to the 14-day incidence rate of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, Croatia is among the better countries in the European Union. The current incidence is at 14, and only four European countries have a lower incidence.
By yesterday, 61,241 persons in Croatia were vaccinated, and 41,966 received two doses, while 20,275 received one dose. A total of 102,207 doses have been administered, it was said.