Lifestyle

19 Jan 2021, 11:48 AM

STA, 18 January 2021 - The new Gault & Millau culinary guide has further cemented the position of three restaurants, Hiša Denk, Hiša Franko and Pri Lojzetu, as top culinary destinations in Slovenia, after the three had already received excellent scores in the country's first Michelin guide in 2020.

Gregor Vračko of Hiša Denk in Zgornja Kungota was named chef of the year 2021 by Gault & Millau, while his restaurant received four toques, the highest possible score in the Gault & Milau guide.

Five other restaurants also received the four toques rating: Hiša Franko in Kobarid and Gostila pri Lojzetu in Vipava, as well as Ošterija Debeluh in Brežice, Restavracija Mak in Maribor and Restavracija Strelec in Ljubljana.

Hiša Denk and Pri Lojzetu each have one Michelin star, while Hiša Franko became the first and only restaurant in Slovenia to have two Michelin three stars in June.

Grega Repovž of Gostilna Repovž in Šentjanž was named the best sommelier of 2021. The restaurant also received the Bib Gourmand designation by from Michelin for exceptionally good food at modest prices.

The best patisserie award went to Fetiche Patisserie in Ljubljana. The popularity award went to Wine Bar Šuklje in Ljubljana.

Mojca Trnovec of Gostilna Mihovec in Zgornje Pirniče was named the best traditional cuisine chef, while Luka Košir of Gostilna Grič in Šentjošt nad Horjulom was named the best chef of the future. His establishment also received the Bib Gourmand.

The best young talent title went to Leon Pintarič of Rajh in Murska Sobota, which also received the Bib Gourmand from Michelin.

Gault & Millau Slovenija director Mira Šemić said as the guide was launched that 2020 had been a hard year, but the guide nevertheless managed to find a number of great culinary stories. "Awards are an inspiration to other restaurateurs and proof that we recognise creativity."

The head of the Slovenian Tourism Board (STO) Maja Pak said that the awards were a great recognition for gastronomy in Slovenia at a time when tourism and gastronomy faced the worst crisis in history due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Today is a day to celebrate, as Slovenia bears the title European Region of Gastronomy 2021, said Pak. "These awards are a great introduction to a gastronomically themed year."

15 Jan 2021, 12:36 PM

STA, 15 January 2020 - A 6am-6pm ban on overtaking for lorries on the A1 motorway between Šentilj and Koper entered into force on Friday. Police controls will be beefed up.

The new regime will be in place for lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes. Overtaking will still be allowed for these vehicles during the day in three-lane sections, and on the entire motorway at night.

A ban on overtaking for lorries is already in place during the morning and afternoon rush hours in some motorway sections, in tunnels, at intersections and on some ring roads.

The sections where overtaking is banned during rush hours are marked and a fine for violations amounts to EUR 300.

Last year, more than 1,500 violations were recorded, up from 1,100 in 2019, 775 in 2008 and little more than 1,000 in 2017.

The ban on the A1 motorway, which has the most heavy traffic, was announced by Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec in early November 2020.

He said this would make traffic run more smoothly and improve safety. The government also plans to introduce motorway police as another way to boost safety.

In the first phase, one unit will be set up in the Ljubljana area, presumably in the first months of this year.

A total of 15 patrol cars are to monitor the motorway network eventually.

14 Jan 2021, 18:25 PM

STA, 14 January 2020 - In light of an expected rise in the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations, hospitals are taking the necessary steps to boost the number of Covid beds. Staff shortages, particularly a lack of intensive care staff, are the crux of the problem, Robert Carotta, the coordinator for Covid beds at the Health Ministry, said on Thursday.

Hospitalisation data show that there has not been any progress for a while, he told the government daily briefing.

"For practically the second month in a row we've been stuck on a plateau of between 1,200 and 1,300 hospitalisations."

The epidemic projections show that Slovenia will need around 1,500 Covid beds during the third wave, up by 10% on the maximum level of bed capacities in mid-December.

Carotta announced the total of beds would be increased according to the needs. He warned that the main problem was providing enough staff not just beds and equipment, particularly specialist staff to work in intensive care units.

"Not only is there not enough of them, but they are also tired with many on sick leave due to coronavirus infections."

Carotta added that a system of patient transfer to other hospitals that was set up in autumn was working fine with the Maribor dispatch centre playing a key role.

The situation in hospitals varies mostly according to epidemiological status in individual regions. Since mid-December, the Murska Sobota hospital in the north-east has been worst hit with 36% of its bed capacities used for Covid-19 patients.

The hospital had it worst already in autumn. In recent days, the number of hospitalisations has been on the rise again, the hospital's director Bojan Korošec said.

Moreover, the Covid-related mortality rate is most alarming in the Pomurje region - 269 Covid-19 patients per 100,000 residents died last year.

On the other hand, in the Izola and Valdoltra hospitals in the western Primorska region, which has been seeing one of the best epidemiological situations in the country, the numbers of Covid beds are near 10% of total capacities.

In the run-up to the third wave, efforts to lessen the burden on the Murska Sobota hospital began this week with its patients being transferred to the Izola and Slovenj Gradec hospitals.

The Nova Gorica hospital in the west is also struggling. Wednesday's rapid testing of staff and patients at its internal medicine departments, an emerging coronavirus hotspot, confirmed twelve new infections, the regional Civil Protection unit said today.

So far, 26 patients being treated at the departments have been infected. The hospital's Covid unit is currently recording peak figures or 61 patients, the hospital's medical director Dunja Savnik Winkler said. Moreover, more than 30 staff members have been infected so far.

In all the above-mentioned hospitals the share of Covid beds has increased compared to mid-December. Elsewhere, the situation has improved though, show data released by the ministry.

In the Jesenice hospital in the north, where Carotta is employed, the situation is currently the same as it was during the biggest strain on hospitals, kept under control due to help from UKC Ljubljana and the Golnik University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases.

Carotta said that one of the future projects would be to ensure additional capacities for patients who have recovered from Covid-19 and suffer from lasting damage from the disease.

All the latest data on COVID and Slovenia

14 Jan 2021, 13:15 PM

STA, 14 January 2020 - A ban on travel between municipalities has not reduced people's mobility, which makes its efficacy questionable, shows a study that analysed mobility and contact tracing during epidemic waves. Mobility is a major factor in the epidemic's development, researchers said, adding that the current situation was mostly a result of belated measures.

The study, conducted by the Institute for Biostatistics and Medical Informatics of the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine, focused on mobility in the first and second epidemic waves to establish why the epidemiological situation was so strikingly different in the autumn compared to the spring.

Major changes in population mobility coincide with the timeline of adopting certain measures, such as restricting gatherings, declaring epidemic, closing schools, suspending public transportation and closing bars, restaurant and hotels, the study shows.

During both waves, movement in residential neighbourhoods increased, whereas there has been a downward trend regarding movement in workplaces or other venues.

The biggest drop was recorded in the spring when workplace mobility was halved and movement caused by other activities dropped by 60%, coinciding with the adoption of Covid measures.

In November, workplace mobility decreased by 30% and movement prompted by other errands by 50%. Such mobility was down also during summer months but it reached pre-Covid levels in September.

The institute drew up three scenarios of possible epidemic developments, taking into account various mobility levels from March through November and deeming neighbourhood mobility less key than other movements.

If Slovenians had been as mobile in early November as they were in the spring, there would have been up to 30% reduction in the death toll until early December.

The researchers also note that the second lockdown began too late since the theoretical possibility of a death toll that would be lower by more than 30% was not realisable any more due to the rapid coronavirus spread.

If the lockdown, which was imposed on 26 October, had already started in mid-September and would trigger the same response regarding mobility levels, the number of deaths could have been reduced up to 80%, meaning some 1,000 deaths fewer between March and December.

If mobility restrictions had been imposed at the start of October, the death toll could have still been reduced by 80%, however the measures would have to be stricter, at least as strict as during the first wave.

The institute also prepared a model of what the situation would have looked like if contact tracing and quarantine measures had been consistently effective throughout the epidemic.

Taking into account the actual timeline of imposing measures and their efficacy, the mortality rate would have then been reduced by 75%, the researchers said, noting that the figure was hypothetical as contact tracing is unlikely to be equally effective amid such high case numbers.

"The current epidemiological situation is thus mostly a result of belated and disproportionate measures in the autumn. Hence, the growing number of new cases reached such a level that the spread of the epidemic no longer allowed active contact tracing."

If contact tracing and quarantine regime had remained operational, 15%-20% reduction in mobility compared to pre-Covid levels would have been enough to contain the epidemic, the institute said.

"Oscillating between extreme measures and complete relaxations could be replaced by somewhat more moderate but constant contact restrictions and active contact tracing. The goal should be to come up with measures that reach an appropriate level of restrictions in a sustainable way."

13 Jan 2021, 21:56 PM

STA, 13 January 2020 - The vast majority of existing coronavirus restrictions will be extended until 22 January, the government decided as it conducted its weekly review of the measures on Wednesday. The only major change is an extension of the formal state of the epidemic by 60 days.

There are very few changes compared to existing restrictions, most of them having to do with the crossing of borders.

Most notably, as of 16 January there is a waiver of quarantine requirement for owners of land on both sides of the border who cross the border to tend to their property.

Passengers crossing into Slovenia must still produce a negative coronavirus test unless they fall within one of the exemptions, and now the validity of the result of rapid antigen tests has been reduced to 24 hours. The results of PCR tests can still be up to 48 hours old.

On the other hand, those who want to cut their quarantine short can now do so by producing a negative rapid antigen test.

The red list of countries from which passengers must quarantine has been extended with the addition of Ireland, which has seen a surge in new cases in recent days.

Most businesses must remain closed, but dry cleaners have now been added to the exemptions. The change takes effect on 16 January.

The formal state of the epidemic will be extended by sixty days from 17 January. The state of epidemic mostly allows for greater involvement of civil protection services in the coronavirus relief effort.

13 Jan 2021, 14:37 PM

STA, 13 January 2020 - Slovenia logged 2,092 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, down nearly 40% on the record daily figure a week ago. A total of 17 patients died, the latest government data show.

This comes from 6,193 PCR tests, of which 28.5% were positive, and 5,750 rapid antigen tests, where the positivity rate was 5.7%.

While infections and cases were down, the number of patients in hospital increased substantially.

There were 1,244 persons in hospital, up 42 over the day before, of which 206 in intensive care, 14 more than the day before.

Slovenia has so far reported nearly 143,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus, corresponding to over 7% of the entire population.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) estimates there are currently almost 24,000 active cases in the country.

A total of 3,070 persons with Covid-19 have died.

Slovenia had a 14-day incidence of 1,130 cases per 100,000 population yesterday, and an average of 1,667 daily cases over the past seven days, according to NIJZ data.

More data on Slovenia and coronavirus

13 Jan 2021, 12:19 PM

STA, 12 January 2020 - The Slovenian part of the Adriatic Sea has not been spared from the impact of climate change in recent decades, with the worst consequences including bleaching and die-off of corals, as well as the arrival of non-native species due to tropicalisation. Seaside wetlands are also expected to gradually disappear due to the rising sea level.

Presenting the situation at Tuesday's virtual lecture, marine biologist Lovrenc Lipej said that the consequences of climate change were already causing concrete problems in the Slovenian territorial waters.

Lipej, who works in the Marine Biology Station in Piran, pointed to the damage done to the cushion coral, a stony coral that forms the only true coral reefs in the Mediterranean Sea.

It is an endangered species that may be found in the Strunjan nature reserve, and is important due to its role of bio-architect, as it provides housing to various marine organisms, thus contributing to biodiversity.

This coral is sensitive to high temperatures, which may cause bleaching. This is a recoverable state, but in the worst-case scenario it causes die-offs.

Both occurrences have already been observed in Slovenia, where seawater temperature is not as problematic as the fact that relatively high water temperatures (up to 26 degrees Celsius) persist late into the autumn, Lipej noted.

What is more, due to tropicalisation, non-native species are expanding towards the north of the Adriatic Sea. A number of such species have been observed in the Slovenian sea in recent years, including the eyespot puffer and the bluefish.

In addition to environmental damage, these species may also cause economic damage, as the bluefish preys on the mullets and other commercial fish species, he added.

Due to the rising sea level, it is expected that certain wetlands along the Slovenian coast will become submerged, including the Sečovlje Saltworks and the Škocjanski Zatok nature reserve.

Biodiversity is expected to be affected there as the areas serve as nesting grounds for certain bird species.

According to Lipej, there are also issues that experts cannot attribute to climate change with certainty, such as the vanishing of seagrass beds and meadows.

He added that the Marine Biology Station was looking for possible solutions, such as repopulation of seagrass beds, growing young corals in laboratories, precise monitoring and elimination of non-native species and measures for balanced exchange of fresh and sea water in lagoons.

12 Jan 2021, 13:05 PM

STA, 11 January 2020 - The number of deaths in Slovenia in 2020 is expected to be the highest since the Second World War based on data collected so far. The number of excess deaths in 2020 compared to 2019 was 3,153, while compared to the last five years, it was 3,821, show data by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

In 2019, a total of 21,112 deaths were recorded in Slovenia, but last year the figure rose to 24,265. In the last five years, 20,444 persons died a year on average.

Compared to the average of the last five years, there were 3,821 more deaths last year, of which 930 were deaths not related to Covid-19. If only 2019 and 2020 are compared, the number of excess deaths not related to Covid-19 is 262.

"Excess deaths were recorded also in connection to diagnoses and diseases that are not directly linked to Covid-19," NIJZ head Milan Krek told the press today.

According to the preliminary data by the Statistics Office for last year, 20,634 people died between January and the end of November, which is 10% more than in the same period in 2019. A total of 3,059 people died in November 2020 alone, which is 85.5% more than in November 2019.

NIJZ data show that 2,891 people with a confirmed coronavirus infection died last year. Most of the deceased were the elderly from care home.

According to Krek, the data on Covid-19 patients were being collected two ways in Slovenia. The Health Ministry collects the data on the number of deceased Covid-19 patients in hospitals and care homes every morning. The NIJZ, however, collects the data on the bases of those who tested positive to coronavirus, and death certificates and documents on deaths due to contagious diseases.

NIJZ includes in its statistics deaths where an infection was confirmed 28 days before the death.

Since the methodology is different, the data cannot be compared directly, and a unified classification is yet to be set up on a global level, Krek explained. "The procedure is time-consuming, so we cannot report on deaths for individual days."

Among the 2,891 persons with a confirmed infection who died last year, 1,682 were care home residents, which is 58% of the deaths.

"One in ten care home residents died because of Covid-19," he illustrated, adding that 15% of care home residents with the infection had died.

The most deaths where a coronavirus infection was confirmed (603) was recorded in central Slovenia, the region with the most inhabitants, but the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants was the highest in the Pomurje region in north-east (268). Koroška follows with 206 deaths per 100,000 people and Podravje with 156.

More than 50% of the deaths with confirmed infection was recorded among those over 85 years of age.

More on this data

11 Jan 2021, 19:01 PM

STA, 11 January 2020 - Mass testing for novel coronavirus with rapid antigen tests for residents of the Ljubljana municipality is being moved from Kodeljevo Arena to the Gospodarsko Razstavišče Exhibition and Convention Centre in the centre of the capital.

As of tomorrow, testing will be conducted at Hall A of on working days from 11am to 3pm, with registrations possible until 1:30pm. Vaccination against Covid-19 will also start at the same location tomorrow.

The testing location has been changed as the new location is more accessible and the venue is larger, as demand is increasing, the Ljubljana Community Health Centre said on Monday.

Vaccination against Covid-19 will be carried out exclusively for persons on priority lists who have expressed their wish to be vaccinated and were invited for vaccination by their personal physicians.

11 Jan 2021, 13:30 PM

STA, 9 January 2020 - Slovenia is to receive 26,000 doses of the newly approved Moderna coronavirus vaccine by the end of February, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. The European Commission and Moderna agreed on the supply of 80 million doses with the possibility of increase by another 80 million doses. Slovenia has the right to 369,767 doses from each supply.

Moderna vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on 6 January and its distribution among member states will start next week. It is the second coronavirus vaccine to gain approval in the EU, with Pfizer/BioNTech inoculation campaign running since 27 December.

The US-French pharmaceutical company has informed the European Commission and member states that its production capacities are limited, affecting its supply of the EU market, the Health Ministry said.

While Slovenia is to get 26,000 doses in the first two months of the year, Modern is yet to inform the Commission and member states how many doses it will be able to deliver in March, the Health Ministry said.

It also expressed hope that the company will be able to scale up its production capacities soon and underlined that Slovenia is striving to get as much vaccine as it is eligible to, no matter the price.

The European Commission has moreover called on member states to inform it of their needs for more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the ministry said, adding that Slovenia expressed interest for one million additional doses.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines require two doses to achieve immunity.

Get the latest figures on Slovenia and coronavirus here

11 Jan 2021, 09:07 AM

STA, 10 January 2020 - The expected rise in sea level in the coming decades and high tide flooding could affect some 3,800 people living on the Slovenian coast, flooding some nature reserves out of existence, a study has found.

High tides have been increasingly flooding low-lying parts of the Slovenian coast and sea level has risen by 10 centimetres in the past 50 years or by 1.7 millimetres a year, shows the study, conducted by researchers of the geography department of the University of Primorska Faculty of Humanities.

The researchers, Gregor Kovačič and Valentina Brečko Grubar, note that in the past 20 years the rise in sea level in Slovenia has been higher even than European and global average.

Scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate the global sea level could rise by up to 100 centimetres by 2100, but unlikely not by less than 50 centimetres.

Given a 50 centimetre rise in sea level, high tide floods would cover 700 hectares of the Slovenian coast with about 25 centimetres of water on the lowest sections of the coast.

This would mean extensive flooding of the salt pans in Strunjan and Sečovlje as important fauna and flora habitats and of some residential buildings in the town Piran.

During high tide, the water level would be comparable to that of extremely high tides or extreme floods today, with about 80 centimetres of water on low-lying parts of the coast, or even 144 centimetres in case of a exceptionally high tide.

If sea level was to rise by a metre and given an increased tide, 1,246 hectares of land would be under water, an area comparable to exceptional flooding today.

The built-up areas of low coast would be threatened such as those in the area of Koper port or Bonifika in Koper, the coastal sections of Izola, and part of the settlement of Strunjan.

Like today, Piran would be hit the hardest with large part of the old town under water. Some residential areas of Lucija would also be flooded and the entire Sečovelje salt pans.

Given such a rise in sea level, more than 800 buildings would be flooded, affecting about 3,800 residents, most of them in the Koper municipality.

The rise in sea level would cause extraordinary flooding every year and part of the low coast would be mostly under water. The flooded area would increase considerably when the tide was in.

Even if the land was dry when the tide was out, the soil would be inappropriate for farming because of the salt in it.

Conservation areas such as the Škocjanski Zatok, Sečoveljske Soline and Stjuža in Strunjan would be gone forever, the researchers warn.

They call for making out detailed mid- and long-term plans to adapt to the consequences of sea flooding, including by mapping out where certain human activities are no longer possible.

Ljubljana Predicted to Be World's Fastest-Warming City

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