including the first ones in dalmatia; a young woman from biograd who had come back from a tourist trip to zanzibar via dubai with her sister and had previously spent time in self-isolation with her family was hospitalized in zadar, and an elderly couple who were hospitalized in split. the number of infected doctors increased to nine. on the same day, the croatian parliament passed the law which increased the authorities of the croatian national civil protection headquarters, aimed at "increasing the system flow". this allowed national civil protection headquarters on a national level to make centralised decisions concerning citizens everyday lives, which were then to be implemented by local branches of the headquarters. croatian government also brought the set of measures intended to help domestic economy. on 19 march, sixteen new cases were reported bringing the number to 105. first cases were reported in dubrovnik and šibenik. the same day, an elderly man from brtonigla who died the day before in self-isolation was confirmed to have had the virus; however, the virus wasn't confirmed to be the cause of death. prime minister plenković gave a televised address to the nation concerning the pandemic, calling it "the biggest crisis croatia has faced since the independence war". the same day, patients were being moved from clinical hospital dubrava as it was being turned into a respiratory centre for the most severe cases of the virus. doctors and medical staff were helped out by dinamo zagreb ultras group bad blue boys. on 20 march, 23 new cases were reported. amongst the new cases is a first case of an infected priest; a retired priest from roman catholic archdiocese of vrhbosna who lived in sesvetski kraljevec. the first case was recorded on the islands; a man from vrboska on hvar who had been working in austria was hospitalized in split. the same day arena zagreb was started being turned into a hospital for lighter cases. minister beroš reported receiving a donation of medical equipment from a saudi arabian man. on 21 march, 78 new cases were reported, including the first one in koprivnica; a woman who had spent time abroad and had been self-isolating after coming back. on 22 march, an intense earthquake (5.4 on the richter scale) hit the city of zagreb, at 6:24 am and was followed by multiple aftershocks with the largest being a mw4.8 event at 7:01 am. the earthquake could also be felt across the rest of croatia, bosnia and herzegovina, hungary, slovenia, and austria. it was the strongest earthquake in zagreb since the 1880 earthquake. the same day, 29 new cases of covid-19 were reported, including the first case in čazma; a woman who had come back from turkey. fourth week covid-19 tents in front of hospital in čakovec on 23 march, new 61 cases were reported. the first case in the međimurje county was reported. on 24 march, 67 new cases were reported, bringing the number of the infected to 382. the number of recovered increased to 16. the first case was recorded in vinkovci; a woman who had worked in austria. on 25 march, 60 new cases were reported, increasing the number of infected to 442. three soldiers of croatian army on a mission in lithuania were confirmed to have been tested positive as well. croatian institute for public health director krunoslav capak confirmed eight cases of the virus and thirty individuals who have the symptoms on the island of murter, and backed up cutting transportation ties with the island until the individuals with the symptoms are tested. minister božinović confirmed nobody entered the country in the previous week and announced a convoy of 400 people who were going to travel from austria and slovenia to serbia accompanied by police. the first death was confirmed, as the man who had died on 18 march was confirmed after the autopsy to have died due to the virus. on 26 march, 39 new cases were reported, bringing the number of infected to 481. minister of defence damir krstičević announced sending a croatia airlines plane to afghanistan to return 105 soldiers of croatian army home, as well as 26 soldiers of montenegrin army, seven soldiers of the army of north macedonia and two soldiers of albanian army. epidemiologist alen medić, from institute of public health zadar, stated that he would request quarantine to be proclaimed in biograd na moru, just like on murter, due to circa eighty people being suspected of being infected. the same day two new deaths were recorded in the country. both of the deceased were elderly oncological patients from zagreb and slavonski brod, respectively. on 27 march, 91 new cases were reported, a record increase in a single day. the reason was two new hotspots in zadar and biograd na moru. on 28 march, 71 new cases were reported. two new deaths were confirmed; a 92-year-old woman "with significant comorbidity" from pula and a 60-year-old man from karlovac. director capak confirmed eight new cases on murter, which had previously been under quarantine. he also recommended the citizens to maximally avoid going outside due to air pollution in zagreb, which could have caused respiratory problems and whose source was out of the country. on 29 march, 56 new cases were reported, increasing the number of infected to 713. sixth death was confirmed; 84-year-old man who died in clinical hospital dubrava, having previously suffered a stroke. the number of recovered increased to 52 and the number of patients on ventilators increased to 26. minister beroš announced anticipation of a china eastern airlines plane carrying 12.5 tonnes of medical equipment from shanghai via frankfurt to zagreb. minister božinović announced that a security guard from the bilice prison in split had been tested positive for the virus. on 30 march, 77 new cases were reported, bringing the number of infected to 790. the number of recovered increased to 64 and the number of patients on ventilators increased to 27. no new death cases were reported. on 31 march, 77 new cases were reported, increasing the number of the infected to 867, 32 of which were on ventilators. total number of recovered patients increased to 67. as of that day, all counties of croatia recorded at least one case of infection. minister božinović warned citizens about tomorrow's april fools' day and directed them not to spread any misinformation as a joke. teaching institute for public health introduced a "drive in" method of diagnosing the infection, where a patient does not leave their vehicle and their sample is instead taken through a car window. however, the method requires making an appointment with a family medicine doctor previously. first week on 1 april, 96 new cases were reported, which was a record increase in a single day. the number of patients on ventilators increased to 34. six more patients recovered and were released home. no deaths were recorded. direktor capak spoke about the passengers of a flight from turkey that landed in croatia on 16 march, stating that 41 recorded cases were connected to that flight. it was reported that 150 samples were taken by the "drive in" diagnosing method during its first day. on 2 april, a growth of 48 new cases was recorded. the number of patients on ventilators increased by one, while the number of recovered patients increased by 15 to 88. seventh death was reported. minister beroš called out young people from zadar, šibenik and split who defied the enacted measures and went to hang out in local cafés nevertheless. on 3 april, 68 new cases were reported, increasing the number of recorded cases to 1,079. 39 were on ventilators, while 92 recovered. eighth death was confirmed; an 85-year-old woman who had already been ill. to help the croatian institute of public health, hero factory, a small marketing agency based in zagreb, made the first pro-bono facebook chatbot aimed to inform the public about the virus and safety measures. minister božinović informed about 45 cases of cafés breaking the working ban. director capak stated that the majority of recorded cases in krapina-zagorje county were linked to an unspecified incident that had happened in a certain company in slovenia. politician ivan pernar sparked controversy in the country, stating that the civil protection headquarters were manipulating with the number of the deceased and were blaming the virus for deaths of everybody who had been positive for it, without determining whether the virus itself was the cause. he went on to claim that it was "not normal to paralyze and quarantine the entire country to make someone's grandfather or great-grandfather live a day, a week, a month or a year longer". on 4 april, 47 new cases were confirmed. the number of recovered increased to 119. no new patients were put on ventilators. four people died in osijek, all of whom were elderly; the youngest one was aged 71 and the oldest was aged 92. minister of foreign and european affairs gordan grlić-radman stated that 155 passengers, most of whom were croatian citizens alongside several citizens of slovenia, bosnia and herzegovina and montenegro, would arrive in croatia that evening via extraordinary commercial flights from portugal, spain, italy and sweden. he also stated that, the next day, 37 citizens would arrive via a ferry from ancona to zadar, and that more than 100 citizens would arrive via six buses from tyrol. on 5 april, 56 new cases were confirmed, one of which was confirmed to be a three-month-old baby from nuštar, increasing the number of cases to 1,182. the number of patients on ventilators did not change, while six new patients recovered. three new deaths were confirmed, all of whom were older than 80. the citizens who arrived from rome, lisbon, madrid and stockholm were all tested negative for the virus. second week on 6 april, forty new cases were reported, including a two-month-year old baby from duga resa, bringing the number of infected to 1,222. the number of patients on ventilators decreased to 36, while five more patients recovered. sixteenth death was confirmed; a middle-aged man from zagreb who had no health issues previously. the same day, it was confirmed that austrian noblewoman francesca von habsburg had been self-isolating with her daughters eleonore and gloria on the island of lopud for a month already, after her husband karl of austria had been tested positive for the virus. on 7 april, the total number of infected increased to 1,282, following confirmation of sixty new cases. the number of patients on ventilators decreased to 35. 37 patients recovered, while two died; a 47-year-old man from zabok who suffered from tetraplegia, hypertension and obesity, and a 91-year-old man from murter. following infection of a medical worker in general and veteran hospital "croatian pride" knin, palliative care department of the hospital was put in quarantine. the same day, a 39-year-old man who was tested positive for the virus fell out a first floor window in zadar general hospital due to unknown reasons. he was provided medical treatment on the spot. during the evening, a nursing home in split was evacuated after suspicion of a virus outbreak, which turned out to be true as ten patients were tested positive and transported to clinical hospital centre križine. on 8 april, 61 new cases were reported, increasing the number of cases to 1,343. twelve recovered while one died; an 87-year-old from split who suffered from hypertension. on 9 april, 64 new cases were reported. the number of patients on ventilators decreased to 34, while forty people have recovered. twentieth death was confirmed; an elderly man "with extensive comorbidity". one of the newly confirmed cases was reported to be a patient of a nursing home from koprivnica, who previously spent ten days self-isolating. on 10 april, 88 new cases were reported, making the total number of recorded cases 1,495. the number of patients on ventilators remained 34, while the number of recovered increased to 231. one death was reported; a 93-year-old woman who had been evacuated from the split nursing home three days before. on 11 april, 39 new cases were reported, while 92 recovered, making it for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that the number of recovered was higher that the number of newly infected. the same day, entire village of