Croatia has registered about 8,500 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which is the highest number in one day since the outbreak of the epidemic, media outlets reported on Wednesday.

To date, the highest number of new cases in one day was on 10 November 2021, when 7,315 new cases were detected.

A week ago there were 5,768 new cases of contagion and 14 days ago there were 4,226 new cases registered in one day.

Minister of Health Vili Beroš said on Tuesday that the increase in the number of new infections was partly due to the Omicron variant and partly due to gatherings during the festive season.

“The number of new infections is growing by the week and I would say that the fifth wave is already here. It has merged with the fourth wave when we didn't manage to reduce the number of infections,” Beroš told reporters yesterday.