STA, 6 November 2020 - Slovenia's daily coronavirus tally dropped by over a hundred to 1,564 on Thursday as the share of positive tests inched down to 26.53%, and the daily death toll fell to 26 from 30 the day before. Hospitalisations kept increasing but at a slower pace and data presented by the government suggest the peak has been passed.
Government data show the latest cases come from 5,895 Sars-Cov-2 tests on Thursday, roughly on a par with the day before, while the positivity rate has decreased by almost two percentage points.
Presenting fresh data, government spokesman Jelko Kacin also said that the R0, the figure showing how many people one infected person passes the virus on, had dropped to 1, which means the outbreak is no longer expanding.
What is more, the 14-day and 7-day incidence graphs he presented at the press briefing on Friday show the peak had been reached days ago with the curve well on its path down and a simulation suggesting it could flatten sometime in early December.
According to tracker site sledilnik.org, the rolling 14-day average of cases per 100,000 residents fell to 1,113 on Thursday.
"The trend is good (...) if the trend continues the same way we can look forward to the future and can consider what the government could do next week," Kacin said, offering the promise of an easing of measures as the cabinet reviews restrictions next Thursday.
However, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals keeps increasing, but even there Kacin noted that the growth is slowing down.
Hospitalisations increased to 1,069 as 92 patients were discharged home, and the number of patients in intensive care units rose by a further seven to 168.
Yesterday, there were 50 new admissions when deducting discharges and fatalities, which compares to 76 at the peak on 31 October.
The tracker site shows the total number of coronavirus cases so far confirmed in the country has exceeded 42,600 with 23,336 cases still active. The death toll has inched close to 500, at 497.
All of Austria, Croatia, Hungary on Slovenia's quarantine list
STA, 5 November 2020 - The government has amended the coronavirus status of several countries as a result of which the whole of Croatia, Austria and Hungary plus Serbia will be on Slovenia's quarantine list starting from Monday, as will almost entire Italy.
Calabria will be the only Italian region not yet on Slovenia's red list, as the amended decree on the movement across the border takes effect, expectedly on Monday.
This is even as Calabria will be one of the four red regions that Italy will impose the tightest coronavirus restrictions on starting from Friday.
Meanwhile, even those parts of Croatia, Austria and Hungary that have so far been on Slovenia's orange list are being moved to the red, which entails mandatory ten-day quarantine, except for any of several exceptions.
Also moved to the red list are the whole of Serbia, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria, the Vatican and San Marino.
The list is thus being extended from 116 to 147 countries, some of those having only certain administrative regions on the list.
Arrivals from those countries can avoid quarantine with a negative coronavirus test, or if they fall under one of the 17 exceptions such as daily migrant workers, international hauliers, persons in transit and members of foreign official delegations.
Other exceptions include those attending to urgent business, having health examinations or surgeries, or owners of property in a neighbouring country. Some exceptions also include close family or household members when travelling together with the person eligible.
Presenting the latest changes to the government measures, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said the government advised against all non-essential travel outside the country anyway.
He said the same restrictions to travel across the border as for Slovenian citizens also apply to foreigners residing in Slovenia who have relatives in other countries of the former Yugoslavia.
"As you arrive on the border and you don't produce [proof of] one of the reasons for the crossing of border municipalities, you will be fined," said Hojs.
This was after a line of vehicles stretching several kilometres formed at the Obrežje crossing with Croatia on Friday as many arrived there without documents proving their eligibility to travel.
The government today also extended the green list of Covid-19 safe countries that only comprises third countries to add Japan, South Korea, Rwanda, Singapore and Thailand. Arrivals from those countries can enter without quarantine.
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