Croatia has intensified efforts this week to fight the coronavirus after exceeding 2,000 daily cases over the weekend, ordering the use of masks outdoors and recommending work from home wherever possible, Reuters reports.

Also from this week, Slovenia, its northwestern neighbour in the European Union, will allow citizens to leave their municipal areas only in exceptional cases, after having reported 1,675 new infections on Sunday.

On Monday, Croatia, a nation of about 4 million people, reported 828 infections, down from Sunday's daily record of 2,421 new cases. Typically, the number of reported cases falls on Mondays, as a result of less testing over the weekend.

Another Croatian neighbour, Bosnia, also introduced new measures after last week's spike in infections, with active cases rising nearly 70 per cent to 13,950 on Monday and total cases reaching 41,596 in the country of about 3.3 million.