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This summary is provided by the STA:
Govt extends most restrictions, keeps schools closed, shuts down ski lifts
LJUBLJANA - The government decided that schools and kindergartens will remain closed at least until 18 January and extended existing restrictions, while also shutting down ski lifts as of Friday. As of Saturday, rapid testing will no longer be available at five border crossings with Croatia. Moreover, the list of exceptions to business shut down was expanded with surveying services, cleaning services and pedicure, as well as construction works in uninhabited buildings.
Slovenian officials condemn violence in Washington, DC
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's top officials condemned the storming on Wednesday of the US Capitol building, which President Borut Pahor described as an "attack on the symbol of US democracy" and the Foreign Ministry as an "attack on the pillar of American democracy". Prime Minister Janez Janša expressed the hope the US democracy would overcome the crisis, as he tweeted that "violence and death threats - from left or right - are ALWAYS wrong". The Foreign Ministry said it was looking forward to cooperating with the new US administration.
Analysts say Capitol Hill riot sad development for US democracy
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's former Ambassador to the US Božo Cerar and Bogomil Ferfila, a professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences labelled yesterday's storming of US Congress a sad and regrettable development, but they hope things will now calm down relatively quickly, especially since the Republicans have condemned it, which is reassuring and proof of the resilience of American democracy. Both think security had probably not been sufficient.
Mass testing suspended in Ljubljana over unsuitable swabs
LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana Health Community Centre suspended mass antigen rapid testing in the capital after the Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices found the swabs were unsuitable. Mass testing was also suspended in Medvode, a town just north-west of Ljubljana, due to a shortage of tests. The Agency for Medicinal Products announced yesterday it would examine the suitability of antigen tests after suspicions had been raised about the tests' reliability.
Over 2,600 coronavirus cases confirmed anew
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia logged 2,663 coronavirus infections for Wednesday from 18,280 PCR and antigen tests combined. Out of the 6,370 PCR tests performed, 2,040 were positive, according to official data. Another 23 Covid-19 patients died, pushing the national death toll to 2,922. Of the 1,169 patients hospitalised with Covid-19, 189 were in intensive care. According to the National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia has so far confirmed 134,545 coronavirus cases with an estimated 22,379 still active.
Death of inoculated woman not associated with vaccine
LJUBLJANA - Jelko Kacin, the government's Covid-19 spokesman, announced that an expert commission had ascertained that the death of a nursing home resident soon after she received the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was unlikely to have been associated with the vaccination. The woman died because of comorbidities, found the commission, comprising an infectious diseases expert, epidemiologist, cardiologist and representative of the Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices.
Epidemiologist Fafangel Delo's person of the year
LJUBLJANA - Mario Fafangel, the head of the Centre for Communicable Diseases at the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), was declared the Person of the Year 2020 by the newspaper publisher Delo. He was labelled the leading epidemiologist "showing us the way in the restless sea of the epidemic". Fafangel is also the one "we listened to in 2020, whom we trusted and whom we believed", Delo wrote in a press release. Delo's editor-in-chief Bojan Budja said Fafangel was speaking about the epidemic with passion yet in a realistic and calming way.
Slovenia retains its place in global race for talent
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia ranks 31st among 132 countries in the latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index, same as last year. It ranked 29th in 2019 and 25th when the index was first introduced in 2013. After the spring lockdown, the Slovenian economy recovered the fastest in the East Europe region owning to digital infrastructure, flexibility of the labour force and state aid, temping agency Adecco finds in its latest Inovantage survey.
Gorenje launching TV sets production, expanding workforce
VELENJE - Gorenje, the Chinese-owned household appliances maker, is launching production of TV sets in Velenje this week. More than 350 workers are already working at the Hisense Europe Electronic factory, and their number is to increase to 520 by the end of the month. As of next week, around 800 TV sets are to be produced a day. The investment in technological equipment is worth EUR 7 million. In the first phase, around 800 TV sets are to be produced a day, but when full production starts, two million sets should be produced a year. This is to be raised based on demand to almost four million TV sets a year in the next couple of years.
2020 one of hottest years on record
LJUBLJANA - Last year saw temperatures that were above average as well as an average precipitation volume and above-average sun exposure, show interim data released by the Environmental Agency. The year of 2020 ranks among the hottest five since 1961. The temperature departed by 1.3 Celsius from the 1981-2010, which makes 2020 the fifth hottest year on record. The hottest was 2014 with temperatures 1.7 Celsius above the average.
Govt changes housing legislation
LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a set of changes to the housing act to increase the number of public rental homes in the country, the Government Communication Office (UKOM) said. The bill allows public housing funds to borrow more, and establishes a public service acting as an intermediary and manager of rental homes. It also brings the first rise in uncommercial rents since 2007 but also higher subsidies for tenants eligible for uncommercial rents. The national Housing Fund will moreover have a pre-emptive right in buying municipal land designated for construction to build apartment buildings.
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