Due to the recent surge in coronavirus cases in Croatia and the region, the national coronavirus task force announced on Wednesday the re-introduction of mandatory 14-day self-isolation for anyone arriving into the country from neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia, as well as Kosovo and North Macedonia. Face masks are also now mandatory in public transport.

The announcement came after seven days of increased daily case count. After nearly a month with only about a dozen new cases recorded in total, and with life seemingly returning to normal with borders and stores re-opening, daily infection count jumped into double digits on Thursday, June 18, and continued to rise.

On Tuesday, June 23, it reached 30, the single largest daily increase since early May, with many of the new cases related to the top-level tennis exhibition tournament played in Zadar recently. Another hotspot was at a convent in the eastern town of Djakovo, where at least 10 nuns were found to be infected after two of them had recently returned from a trip to Kosovo.

On Wednesday afternoon, authorities said that 22 new cases have been confirmed in Croatia over the last 24 hours, bringing their total number to date to 2,388. Half of these were reported in the capital Zagreb.

At the moment, there are 139 active cases in the country, including 18 people are receiving hospital treatment. A total of 107 people have died since the epidemic started in late February.

Like most of Europe, Croatia had closed all restaurants, non-essential shops, and imposed madatory self-isolation for incoming travellers in March. However, most restrictions were gradually lifted in May, in the hopes that allowing arrivals from select countries would help boost the local tourist industry in time for the summer tourist season.

Tourism – which has been brought to  ahalt due to the Covid-19 pandemic – is an essential source of revenue for the local economy and is estimated to account for at least 20 percent of the nation's GDP.

At the same time, Croatians are preparing to go to the polls in an early election on July 5. The election, originally scheduled for late this year, was moved forward by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his conservative party HDZ, to capitalise on the successful containment of the epidemic in recent months. 

Although Plenkovic had to get tested after visiting the tennis tournament in Zadar – where several famous players have been infected, including world's no. 1, Novak Djokovic – Plenkovic later rejected calls to postpone the election.

In Bosnia, authorities have been reporting highest daily case count increases over the past week, with 88 new cases recorded on Wednesday alone. In Serbia, the daily new case count has nearly doubled from 50-60 a day to more than 90 over the last 7 days, reaching 102 on Tuesday, the highest single increase since May 22.