STA, 24 October 2020 - Friday was a day of grim records in Slovenia's fight against the coronavirus. A record 7,025 tests were performed, with a record 1,961 coming back positive, pushing the positivity rate to a record 27.91%. Moreover, 19 people with coronavirus died yesterday, the highest daily death number yet.
While 17 people died in hospital, two more died in nursing homes, the Health Ministry said. This brought the total coronavirus death tally to 235.
The government initially said that 1,963 cases had been confirmed, this was later corrected by spokesman Jelko Kacin, who tweeted that 1,961 had been confirmed. He also said that they were still collecting information on deaths from nursing homes.
The number of active cases climbed to 13,021, according to tracker Covid-19.Sledilnik. 449 were in hospital, with 63 requiring intensive care, the Health Ministry said.
By far the highest number of active cases has been reported in Gorenjska (979), followed by Koroška (704) and central Slovenia (631), data from Covid-19.Sledilnik show.
Kacin also tweeted that the number of tests performed continues to increase and that the pressure on labs is immense. So far, 21,274 have been confirmed since testing began in spring.
Milan Krek, the director of the National Institute for Public Health (NIJZ), told the STA today the high figures do not come unexpected, while Bojana Beović, the head of the government Covid-19 task force, told Radio Slovenija they would climb higher still.
Krek said NIJZ had prepared for the second wave, increasing its capacities, so that epidemiologists are now able to call over 1,000 people a day.
Meanwhile, Beović said manner of testing may change in the future due to the high number of positive tests, "because this is impossible work", while hospitalisations provide an insight into what is happening.
She said the task force was not considering additional measures at this point because restrictions put in place recently should have to suffice.
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