IN AN EFFORT to relieve some of the congestion for Covid-19 testing at Zagreb's "Andrija Stampar" teaching institute of public health, over the next few weeks the city's "Fran Mihaljevic" infectious diseases hospital and the Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) will take over a portion of samples.

During a meeting of the heads of the three institutes on Monday it was decided that testing would be done by all three institutions over the next few weeks due to the increased number of requests as people are returning to work after the holidays and for foreigners who are leaving Croatia.

The head of the infectious diseases hospital, Alemka Markotic, announced that extra personnel would be engaged to conduct testing and that if need be, more personnel from other institutions would be called in.

Extra staff for laboratories will be hired so that there will be sufficient staff to conduct tests during the autumn and winter, she added.

Zvonimir Sostar of the Andrija Stampar institute said that the extra help will enable tests to once again be processed within 24 hours, adding that samples being processed on Monday were those taken on Saturday and that those taken on Sunday would be completed by tomorrow.

Sostar confirmed that the coronavirus had entered the microbiology section at the institute and that one entire shift of staff was currently in isolation.

HZJZ head Krunoslav Capak too confirmed that extra capacities were required and announced cooperation with other microbiological centres in the country.