STA, 24 November 2021 - During the past two weeks of heightened inspection, the Market Inspectorate has temporarily shut down nine shops and gas stations due to failures to check the Covid pass, bringing the total of such cases so far to 15.
In 19 cases, the inspectorate found failures to observe mask-wearing and implement the recovered-vaccinated-tested (PCT) rule among staff, said Slovenia's chief market inspector Martina Gašperlin, adding that such cases were a minority.
In the past two weeks, inspections were carried out at 1,200 venues, including some 260 over both weekends, with most of them being shops.
Minor irregularities were found in 265 cases, resulting in 183 warnings requiring the operators to remedy the situation. "It is important for us to give a warning and if things are remedied, that is fine by us," Gašperlin told Wednesday's Covid briefing.
In some cases, the infractions were not remedied despite a warning, so the inspectorate issued 20 fines, totalling just over EUR 83,200.
"The most frequent cases were that the taxable persons did not check the PCT condition, including twelve such cases at gas stations, three in clothing shops and five in other types of shops," she said.
In nine cases, the inspectors deemed that the irregularities posed such a risk to public health and people's lives that they imposed a temporary closure of the facility until the situation is remedied.
A total of 15 such decisions have been issued in the course of the enhanced supervision so far, mainly in cases where customers' Covid passes were not being checked, Gašperlin said, adding that in recent weeks adherence to the rules had improved.
