Gordan Lauc

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry & Genos Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Zagreb, Croatia

COVID-19: We Crushed the First Wave. What Next?

Abstract

Croatia is one of the few countries in the world that successfully stopped the first wave of COVID-19 pandemics. Despite proximity of Northern Italy and extensive mobility of people and goods the number of confirmed cases in Croatia flattened at slightly over 2,200. Exponential growth was evidently present in February and early March, but it was efficiently stopped with country-wide lockdown and stringent obligatory measures of social distancing. Success in stopping the COVID-19 pandemics enabled early reopening of the country, but the fact that only a small fraction of the population was exposed to the virus leaves the country vulnerable to the potential second wave of the pandemics. Whether there will be a second wave and how hard will it be depend on multiple factors including potential seasonality of COVID-19, progress with the development of new drugs, therapeutic strategies and/or vaccine.

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