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Zagreb - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Wednesday that all state institutions were cooperating well and that protecting people's lives and health with as few consequences as possible was the main priority in the current crisis caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Speaking in an interview with Nova TV, Jandroković called on citizens to listen to instructions from the relevant authorities and to trust state institutions.
Even though many from the Opposition criticise the plan for the state to start tracking people via mobile phone location information, Jandroković believes there is a very good reason for that measure.
- Our primary concern is protection of our citizens' lives and health. I understand the concern about civil liberties but people's health and lives our are our priority. Tracking people via phone location information is one of the measures to ensure that those who should be in quarantine stay in quarantine, said Jandroković. He added though that he was not in favour of introducing bracelets to monitor people's movement.
- That would be a really high level of control. This is a measure with which we want to prevent irresponsible individuals from leaving the place at which they should be, he said.
He said that the state was functioning very well and that people in charge of the national civil protection authority, doctors and nurses, soldiers and police officers, civil protection teams and others were doing a huge job sacrificing themselves, including in the case of the earthquake that hit the area of Zagreb last Sunday. He warned that by acting irresponsibly some people were making the current situation more difficult and contributing to an increase in the number of those infected with COVID-19.
Asked about the tightening of sanctions for people violating rules of self-isolation to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus, Jandroković said that all measures that could help protect people's health were being considered, including more repressive ones.
Asked about the cooperation between the ruling coalition and the president of the republic, Jandroković said that at the moment all components of the state leadership cooperated well and should continue doing so.