Quarantine imposed on arrivals from areas with Omicron Covid variant
LJUBLJANA - Travellers arriving in Slovenia from areas with the new coronavirus variant that the WHO has declared to be of concern face mandatory quarantine on arriving in Slovenia under a decision taken by the government on Friday. Entry is banned to foreigners without a residence permit in Slovenia arriving from those areas. The list of areas and countries with the new variant B.1.1.529, named Omicron by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is being published by the National Institute of Public Health. Those are currently South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The new variant has not yet been detected in Slovenia.
Curbs placed on Christmas fairs
LJUBLJANA - The government made a few changes to Covid restrictions on Friday, including detailing rules for open-air Christmas fairs, which will have to be fenced off with separate entrances and exits. Open-air stalls serving food and drinks need to put up notices limiting customer numbers. Other provisions in that section of the regulation remain unchanged, which means that existing restrictions on the number of customers and their being required to have a Covid pass still apply. But the pass will no longer be required for customers accepting mail and package deliveries, except at post offices.
Slovenia's coronavirus curve keeps falling
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's daily coronavirus count continued its downward trajectory as 2,224 new cases were reported for Friday, down both on the day and the week before. Hospitalisations remained stable, but another 23 Covid-19 patients died yesterday, government data shows. The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 dropped by 17 to 1,120 this morning ad 284 still required intensive care, down by five. The 7-day average of new infections dropped to 2,478, 144 less than the day before, and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 fell by 67 to 1,901, according to the National Institute of Public Health.
Covid vaccine boosters recommended for all adults
LJUBLJANA - The national advisory committee on immunization recommends a booster shot of a vaccine against Covid-19 to all adults, that is everyone aged 18 or over. The body decided to expand the booster shot recommendation to all adults at its latest session after initially recommending boosters for several groups, including to over 50-year-olds, particularly vulnerable people with chronic conditions regardless of their age, care home residents, family members of immunocompromised persons and those particularly exposed at work. According to the National Institute of Public Health, more than 281,700 people in Slovenia have already received booster shots.
LMŠ sets out plan for country's normalisation, development breakthrough
LJUBLJANA - The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) of the previous prime minister endorsed its election manifesto and platform at a virtual congress setting out solutions which they say should restore a normality in Slovenia and pave the way for a development breakthrough. Marjan Šarec said the next government would have its work cut out fixing the consequences of the current rule. He promised staff replacements "where those in power at the moment have politically subjugated institutions that are supposed to be independent and vital to the state's functioning and survival". With the platform, the LMŠ refashions itself as a development-oriented liberal party.
NSi offers itself as solution to end bi-partisan antagonism
LJUBLJANA - New Slovenia (NSi) met for a virtual congress in preparation for next year's general election where their leader Matej Tonin said the Christian democratic party should get the mandate to form a government in order to avoid the "inefficiency" of the centre-left and the "sharpness" of the SDS, the NSi's partner in the current coalition. Tonin, the incumbent defence minister, said the NSi would not be breaking up the government in the few months ahead of the April election. The party's programme aims to boost the economy, secure accessible public healthcare through competition and an even development of the whole country.
President Pahor condemns Kosovo bus shooting attack
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor condemned Friday's shooting attack on a bus in western Kosovo in which three people were killed. In a post on his Twitter profile, Pahor also expressed his deepest condolences to the victims' families. Pahor is due to visit Kosovo on Monday for talks with his counterpart Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. He will also visit Slovenian troops participating in the NATO Kosovo Force. The Kosovo authorities said terrorism was likely the motive behind the attack.
Minister visiting Slovenian communities in Dalmatia and Montenegro
LJUBLJANA - Minister for Slovenians Abroad Helena Jaklitsch is visiting Slovenian communities in Dalmatia and Montenegro this weekend. At meetings in Zadar and Split yesterday she learned about the communities' lively activities. She visited the Slovenian association Lipa (Linden tree) in Zadar and Triglav in Split as well as the Slovenian Consulate General in Split. Jaklitsch today visited Dubrovnik before travelling on to Montenegro for meetings with representatives of the Slovenian community in Podgorica.
Thirty years since the first internet connection in Slovenia
LJUBLJANA - The internet is thirty years old in Slovenia. The first internet connection was established on 27 November 1991 at the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS), when researchers obtained permission to pass IP packets through CERN in Geneva and through Germany to a router at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Amsterdam. Preparations for establishing an internet connection in Slovenia started in the mid-1980s, and in May 1991, IJS researchers were finally granted permission to lease a direct line to connect to the international network infrastructure of the COSINE project, which was called IXI (International X.25 Infrastructure) at the time.
Public transport strongly affected by epidemic
LJUBLJANA - The latest Slovenian Energy Efficiency Survey shows that public transport is regularly used as a key mode of transport by around 10% of households, 53% use it very rarely, while 27% of households never use public transport. The survey results also show that the use of public transport has been strongly affected by the epidemic. The use of public transport is more common in larger cities like Ljubljana, where 23% of households used public transport regularly, and Maribor, where that share was 15%. The share of households that never use public transport stands highest in settlements with less than 2,000 inhabitants (37%).
Double win and a podium in prefect day for Slovenian ski jumpers
NIZHNY TAGIL, Russia/RUKA, Finland - Slovenian women ski jumpers secured their first ever double victory in the individual World Cup event in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ema Klinec won the second event of the season after finishing as the runner-up at the same venue yesterday. Her teammate Urša Bogataj placed second. Their male counterpart Anže Lanišek finished second in the World Cup event in Ruka in Finland to round off a perfect day for Slovenian jumpers.
