Politics
STA, 6 August 2020 - The Slovenian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that Minister Anže Logar and US State Secretary Mike Pompeo will sign next week a Joint Declaration on 5G Security, while also in fact confirming that Pompeo is paying a visit to Slovenia, as recently reported in the media.
Pompeo will be on a tour of four European countries, which the US state secretary labelled as great friends of America, and focus is expected to be on talks on security of telecommunications networks of the next generation (5G).
Although this is not directly specified, the visits to the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria and Poland are will in effect revolve around the US-China tensions, specifically concern about 5G technology developed by Chinese tech giant Huawei.
While the exact date of the visit was not initially announced, the US State Department today said Pompeo would visit Slovenia next Thursday. He will meet President Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Janez Janša.
The visit will be an opportunity to discuss enhancing cooperation between Slovenia and the US "in key areas of mutual concern, including nuclear energy and Western Balkan integration", said the State Department's press release.
Meanwhile, it was at a press conference on Wednesday at which Pompeo announced the trip that he also talked about disputes with China and announced additional measures to provide security in cyberspace.
In this light, the US state secretary intends to sign with Slovenia a Joint Declaration on 5G Security, which the US has already signed with several European countries, including Romania, Estonia and Latvia.
In the draft declaration, which was obtained by the STA in June, there are several security conditions on which countries are expected to agree on being mandatory for establishing a safe 5G network.
The text states providers and their suppliers have to be checked thoroughly, including the transparency of their ownership, honouring of intellectual rights and commitment to laws requiring transparent governance.
With the joint statement, Slovenia and the US would also highlight the importance of safe networks at the level of NATO and the EU.
As the statement could limit Huawei's participation in 5G deployment in Slovenia, the company recently said it was willing to discuss 5G technology security issues with the Slovenian government as well as sign a non-spy agreement with the country.
The government has not responded yet to the call. Quizzed about this by the STA, the Government Communication Office only said that the "government has not discussed this topic yet".
While announcing the signing of the declaration, the Foreign Ministry also said that the purpose of Pompeo's visit was to "confirm and deepen the close friendly, allied and partner ties" between the countries.
The visit is also about "strengthening bilateral political dialogue at a high level and boosting cooperation in business and other fields". Announcing the four-country tour, Pompeo himself said it would be a very important and productive trip.
The visit will be the most high-profile one from the US since 2008, when President George W. Bush attended a EU-US summit during Slovenia's presidency of the EU.
The last time a US secretary of state visited Slovenia was in 1997, when Madeleine Albright was received in Ljubljana.
STA, 6 August 2020 - A tweet by an Interior Minister official in which he labels Slovenian social work centres as a "hotbed of feminists" and levels additional insults has caused uproar, with Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina condemning it as unacceptable in public discourse. "Hateful and intolerant discourse should not have a place in society," he said.
The tweet by Borut Jakopin, who is in charge of personal data protection at the ministry, was published recently as he commented on the conduct by social workers in the case of a 10-year-old boy who had drowned in the Soča river.
He said that "Slovenian [social work centres] are a hotbed of feminists, untended frustrated women and effeminate beta boys", with the tweet also being retweeted by Interior Ministry State Secretary Vinko Gorenak, who later removed the retweet.
Svetina, who was urged by the trade union of social work centres to react, said on Thursday that the tweet was unacceptable and he also expressed concern over intolerant rhetoric in social discourse.
"Hateful and intolerant discourse should not have place in society, and the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman condemns it," the press release says.
"It seems that we are descending into increasingly worse insults, destructiveness, intolerance and mutual attacks, while there is a lack of tolerance to people who think differently, of understanding and respect of personal dignity," it adds.
The prime minister's office has told the STA that the government had not discussed the tweet and that it had not taken any particular opinion on it.
The Interior Ministry has labelled the tweet as utterly inappropriate and has distanced itself from it, and noted that Jakopin did not have access to personal information of employees in social work centres.
In a subsequent statement it said expression of personal opinions in one's own free time and on topics that are not in the ministry's purview could not be considered a violation of the code of ethics, which was why the author of the tweet would not be subject to a disciplinary procedure.
The Ministry of Labour, the Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has condemned "psychological, physical and verbal violence", adding that "such communication is inappropriate" and asking for an apology to social work centre employees.
The Chamber of Social Work has condemned the tweet as well, saying that "such insulting posts have a note of discreditation and deeply encroach upon the integrity of employees."
STA, 5 August 2020 - Covid-19 patients in Slovenia are primarily treated with support measures that target symptoms, meaning they receive oxygen and fever-reducing drugs if necessary. Those with severe symptoms are given remdesivir, favipiravir and dexamethasone, drugs that research shows can be potentially effective.
Remdesivir, an antiviral agent, is administered to those who need intensive care or have a rapidly increasing need for oxygen supply, Mateja Logar, an infectiologist at the UKC Ljubljana hospital, has explained for the STA.
Those with slightly milder symptoms and in the starting stage of the disease but with coexisting conditions are administered favipiravir, a drug so far used to treat the flu.
With those who need oxygen but have been receiving it for a period where favipiravir is no longer a viable option, the drug of choice is dexamethasone, a corticosteroid that has been used for decades, mostly to treat various kinds of inflammations.
"These are drugs that multiple studies have shown to be potentially effective while also having a relatively favourable safety profile," Logar added.
Slovenian doctors do not use hydroxychloroquine, an arthritis medicine that also can be used to prevent malaria, nor do they use the antibiotic azithromycin or drugs for HIV, as these have been proven ineffective in multiple studies.
The Slovenian Blood Transfusion centre is also collecting the plasma of those who got through a Sars-CoV-2 infection in the spring months and is storing it in case the need arises to use it for treatment. Plasma treatment has so far not been used at UKC Ljubljana for Covid-19.
There has been no treatment with stem cells either, given that this an experimental type of treatment that involves a number of technical difficulties.
UKC Ljubljana has so far not participated in clinical trials, since the studies also involved certain drugs that were not deemed appropriate. The hospital did share data on treatment with the producer of remdesivir.
STA, 4 August 2020 - Due to an increase in illegal migrations from Slovenia to Italy, the government in Rome has announced it will send an additional contingent of soldiers to the Friuli Venezia Giulia region to help monitor the border with Slovenia, Tatjana Rojc, the ethnic Slovenian senator in Rome, said on Tuesday.
Rojc met today with Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, who presented the government's plans. The Italian government is closely watching the developments and wants to strengthen cooperation with Slovenia in the fight against smugglers, Lamorgese was quoted as saying by the Austrian Press Agency (APA).
Rojc told the APA that the stricter controls in Trieste and Gorizia are leading an increasing number of migrants and Ukrainian smugglers to try to enter via the smaller border crossing in the Udine area. The smugglers are transporting the migrants to Italy with small buses, camper vans and lorries, the senator added.
The plans of the Italian government seem to come in response to a letter sent to it last week by the regional authorities in Friuli Venezia Giulia, which called for fast and targeted action.
STA, 4 August 2020 - Thirteen public health institutions and a private concessionaire have received the much-discussed ventilators Siriusmed R30 ordered through Geneplanet. Although the Health Ministry decided in May that they could be kept only if additional equipment is supplied to make them suitable for Covid-19 patients only two hospitals received this equipment.
The EUR 8 million contract with company Geneplanet for the purchase of 220 ventilators Siriusmed R30 was rescinded in May following allegations of favourable treatment and doubts about the suitability of the ventilators for use on Covid-19 patients.
Experts said at the time that Siriusmed R30 was suitable for use on Covid-19 patients provided a compressor and an air humidifier with heated pipes are supplied additionally.
After the contract was terminated, Geneplanet had to return EUR 5.2 million for 130 ventilators to the Commodity Reserves Agency, and the agency told the STA it had received the money on 15 May.
Since 110 ventilators have already been delivered to the Commodity Reserves Agency, the ministry decided to keep 90 of them under the condition that additional equipment be delivered, and return 20.
Since then, the agency has distributed 20 ventilators to the UKC Ljubljana and Maribor hospitals, with each receiving 10, while 20 went to the Celje hospital.
The remaining 70 ventilators were given to the Administration for Civil protection and Disaster Relief, which has distributed 49 of them to ten hospitals. Twenty were returned to Geneplanet.
The most, 11 ventilators, went to the Murska Sobota general hospital, the Ptuj hospital received seven, the Topolšica hospital six, while the hospitals in Nova Gorica, Trbovlje and Jesenice received five each. Another four went to Slovenj Gradec, three to Izola, two to Brežice and one to Sežana.
One ventilator was given to the Bitenc clinic, a private clinic with concession operating within the Golnik hospital, which is one of the hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.
This could prove to be controversial, as the act on investments in public health institutes stipulates that the state must invest in the medical and non-medical equipment of public not private health institutions.
The founder of the clinic, surgeon Marko Bitenc, told the STA the clinic had requested the ventilator because its patients with lung cancer get transferred after surgery to the intensive care unit of the Golnik hospital, and by having their own ventilator a potential spread of the infection would be prevented.
Bitenc said the ventilator had been supplied to the clinic without a contract, so he is not sure whether the clinic now owns it or it is there only on loan.
It was the Health Ministry that had made the list of the institutions that will receive the ventilators but due to summer leave it remains unclear what criteria was used and why a ventilator was also supplied to a private concessionaire.
The Commodity Reserves Agency was also to supply the additional equipment to go with the ventilators but then decided that health institutions have to purchase it themselves.
The Murska Sobota and UKC Ljubljana hospitals received the additional equipment for the ventilators, but other hospitals have not. The Murska Sobota hospital said it had received all additional equipment and UKC Ljubljana received air humidifiers.
The director of the Brežice hospital, Anica Hribar, told the STA that the hospital was using Siriusmed R30 only for non-invasive ventilation, for which it was appropriate without additional equipment. The hospital has other ventilators available for the more difficult cases, she added.
The Celje hospital said ventilators Siriusmed R30 were appropriate for Covid-19 patients and other patients given that the hospital always used the tube system with filters that prevent infections.
STA, 3 August 2020 - The Association of Social Institutions has left the government task force for Covid-19 after their demands regarding the treatment of infected residents of care homes off-site have not been met. The Labour Ministry said it regretted the association's decision, while the Health Ministry said the association shared part of the blame for the issues.
The association initially intended to pull out of the task force which is setting the protocols for preventing the spreading of coronavirus in social security institutions on Saturday but received a new proposal regarding the treatment of infected care homes residents at the end of last week.
The solution included the possibility of transferring the infected residents to mobile units since the association has been pushing for the infected residents to be isolated outside care homes immediately so as to prevent the spreading of infections.
The association's task force looked into the proposal during the weekend but was obviously not persuaded by the solutions offered.
The demand for implementing the law and isolating the infected residents of health or other institutions whose architectural design meets the standards for such institutions has not been met, the association told the STA on Monday.
It has also been warning that most care homes do not have the capacity to set up three separate zones - a red zone for infected residents, a grey zone for potential infections and a white zone for healthy residents - in case of confirmed Covid-19 as envisaged by the current protocols.
A survey conducted by the association and NGO Amnesty International Slovenije between 30 July and 3 August among 83 social security institutions has shown that more than 86% of the institutions are physically unable to set up grey and red zones, while 93% of them lack technical capacities. Almost all institutions, 98%, lack the required staff.
Labour Ministry State Secretary Cveto Uršič said he regretted the decision of the association, noting that they had been cooperating well so far. He said representatives of the association would continue to be invited to the meetings of the task force.
"(Care) homes have been dealing with the epidemic properly, which is being confirmed by the fact that more than nine out of ten homes have successfully avoided infections. We are witnessing new infections at homes in recent weeks, but they have been responding well, including in Hrastnik, where the number of infected has been dropping," Uršič told the press.
He said hospitals had recently set up four special Covid-19 units where care home residents who would otherwise not need hospital treatment could be temporarily placed to give care homes time to set up isolation zones.
He also noted that funds for additional staff had been secured and that the Health Ministry was offering training to care home staff on ways to avoid infection.
Efforts are under way to secure enough equipment to last care homes for 30 days, he added.
"To sum up, it is a real pity for the representatives of the association to step down. A lot of effort has been invested on their part and on the part of homes and both ministries," he said.
Meanwhile, a somewhat differently toned reaction came from the Health Ministry, which wrote it was not surprised by the association's decision, "in particular because it shares responsibility for the situation, having co-shaped through the years the manner in which work is organised and staffing standards are set".
"This is an attempt to discredit the search for joint solutions," the ministry added, saying negotiation were not possible when planning for elderly care, as all decisions needed to have professional reasons as opposed to reasons based on interests or politics.
"Everybody who needs hospital care gets it ... We all operate in the interest of the residents. To expect that a resident will be moved out of the care home merely over the suspicion of infection is unethical, unprofessional and inhumane," the Health Ministry said in a written response for the STA.
The ministry added it was aware of staffing and logistic issues at some homes, but argued that those who had approached the situation in a constructive manner were coping successfully.
Suggesting that the novel coronavirus could be present in Slovenia for several years to come, the ministry said it had quizzed care homes about their interest in obtaining container accommodation units that would help address the lack of room for manoeuvring.
The association said earlier today it was hoping that their pulling out of the government task force is only temporary and that it was prepared to take part in informal meetings.
"We're still open for communication with the state, with decision-makers who will listen to our views, opinions and concrete experience ... who will give us the chance to participate, not just be present."
The government Covid-19 task force is to hold its next meeting on Thursday and Uršič said he hoped to see representatives of the association there.
The issue of handling coronavirus infections at care homes rose to prominence once again after Slovenia's curve started to rise in the last few weeks and the care home in Hrastnik became the site of a major outbreak.
STA, 3 August 2020 - The pressure is building for Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec to give her side of the story about allegations of integrity breach or conflict of interest made against her. The MPs of her Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) said on Monday they expected to hear her explanations on Friday, however Pivec plans to do that next week.
The MPs are unanimous in asking for concrete explanations for Pivec's conduct and expect to hear them at the party's meeting on Friday.
The DeSUS deputy faction discussed today what the next steps should be in the wake of the media reports alleging Pivec's professional misconduct and risk of corruption in regard to her recent visits to winemaker Vinakras in the Kras region and the town of Izola, which have raised questions about who paid for them and whether there was potential payment of services for private purposes or family members.
Pivec has denied the allegations and announced that she would provide explanations after she returned from her annual leave. Her party peers expect explanations already on Friday and have requested DeSUS council vice-president Tomaž Gantar to convene a party council session by 25 August at the latest.
"Due to leave of absence, I am to meet DeSUS deputy faction MPs as soon as I return to Ljubljana (presumably next Monday) where I will provide them with all the explanations related to my work," said the DeSUS leader on Twitter today.
Zaradi odsotnosti se bom s poslanci poslanske skupine @stranka_DeSUS sestala takoj, ko se vrnem v Ljubljano (predvidoma naslednji ponedeljek), kjer bom poslancem podala vsa pojasnila, povezana z mojim delom.
— Aleksandra Pivec (@APivec) August 3, 2020
Meanwhile, some Izola municipality officials have raised questions about the way the town has been spending its municipal funds, reported Radio Slovenija.
Izola deputy mayor Aleksej Skok, a SocDems town councillor, believes that accommodation cost incurred during the minister's visit should be looked into by the town's supervisory board. The board's chair meanwhile said that the matter was outside the board's competence, according to Radio Slovenija.
The coalition parties have so far been reserved in their comments on the developments, whereas the opposition is critical of Pivec's actions, with the Marjan Šarec Party (LMŠ) and the Left going as far as demanding her resignation.
The anti-graft watchdog is looking into the matter to determine whether there are grounds for a more in-depth investigation.
The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work week ending Friday, 30 July 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Gross negligence over care homes
STA, 31 July 2020 - The left-wing weekly Mladina argues in its latest editorial that the government has committed a criminal offence of negligence by failing to prevent a repeated coronavirus outbreak at care homes despite knowing what happened there in the first wave of infections.
Grega Repovž, the editor-in-chief, writes that the situation at the Hrastnik care home, a major Covid-19 hotspot in the country, is different than in the case of outbreaks at aged care facilities during the first wave.
It was an error of judgement not to admit infected care home residents to hospitals and isolate them outside the homes, and "the fact could not be denied that fewer elderly would have got sick and fewer would have died" given a different course of action, "but we do not think this was done in ill faith", he writes.
"The Hrastnik case is different. It is different because today we all know most care homes are built in such a way that it is impossible to prevent infected air from spreading between units and floors (...).
"However, the ministries of health and labour and the PM - who publicly interferes in everything - have made no plan in those months how to rescue the aged residents," Repovž writes under the headline Conscious Negligence.
He says the authorities can no longer cite the state of emergency as an excuse, also because of many examples of best practice, including in Croatia, where healthy residents have been immediately moved out of the infected building.
"You do not have to be an epidemiologist to know the biggest risk is socialising in large groups in indoor places. In that respect care homes are much riskier than nurseries or schools."
Repovž goes on to say that care homes are even more risky than night clubs and bars the government has been warning about. He also says that there are plenty of empty facilities - from empty hotels to youth hostels and dorms - that care home residents could be moved to and dispersed into smaller groups.
"When the infection breaks in, the elderly are systematically left there, in the homes without good ventilation, knowing the infection will spread and some will die because of it (...). It is an act of negligence. Negligent conduct that leads to death is a criminal offence in Slovenia."
Demokracija: EU budget success
STA, 30 July 2020 – Demokracija, the right-wing weekly, commends in its latest commentary PM Janez Janša for standing firm in the negotiations for the next EU budget, which it argues has brought Slovenia credibility and more funds. It meanwhile berates the opposition for minimising and relativising what it deems as a success.
"The ruffle in the Slovenian opposition shows that they do not even know what this was about," Jože Biščak, the editor-in-chief of the right-leaning weekly says under the headline Club of Elite Liars.
It was not only about money in Brussels, but also about control - and not only control of the use of money, but over countries themselves, as a desire was expressed for the EU to become a federation and Brussels the flag bearer of the ideology.
"The rule of law, which sounds nice, is collateral damage, an excuse for forcing progressive migration policy on Poland and Hungary," the weekly adds.
"The defiance and firm negotiating positions of the Visegrad Group countries, which were joined by Slovenia, that the eligibility to funds for the recovery of Europe must not be made conditional on sovereign countries giving up on their concern for the nations's culture, tradition and identity and sovereignty ... was an important (stage) win."
Demokracija adds that "despite the great foreign policy success for Slovenia, the media mainstream and opposition kept minimising and relativising the matter all the time, lied about it and manipulated with it, and accused the ruling coalition of giving up on the rule of law."
All our posts in this series are here
What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 24 July
LJUBLJANA - The Jožef Stefan Institute warned the number of new coronavirus cases in the country was growing exponentially with the effective reproduction number higher than 1, which meant the epidemic might be getting out of hand.
LJUBLJANA - The number of overnight stays generated by tourists in Slovenia in June dropped by 63.2% to nearly 610,000 compared to the same period last year, the Statistics Office said. As many as 67% of overnight stays were by Slovenians.
LONDON, UK - Slovenia was added to the UK's list of air bridges, which allows travel to England without needing to self-isolate effective from 28 July after Slovenia had earlier placed the UK as the last on its green list of safe countries.
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian capital witnessed anti-government protests for the 14th consecutive Friday, with a new focus this time on women's rights. Protest campaigns were also held in Maribor, Piran and Velenje.
SATURDAY, 25 July
KRANJSKA GORA - The traditional Russian Chapel commemoration was held below the Vršič Pass, drawing much thinner crowds than usual due to the coronavirus restrictions.
MARIBOR - Russian Ambassador to Slovenia Timur Eyvazov said in an interview with Večer he disagreed with assessments that Slovenia's former government was pro-Russian.
SUNDAY, 26 July
LJUBLJANA - Several major retailers opened their stores after being closed on Sunday for four months due to coronavirus restrictions.
LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša endorsed Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec's appearance in a promotional video of a wine maker made during a trip to the Kras region after questions arose of a potential breach of integrity legislation and ethics code. Pivec and the winemaker later denied the allegations of impropriety and said she had paid for private accommodation during her trip.
MONDAY, 27 July
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prosecutor Jaka Brezigar was appointed the Slovenian member of the European Public Prosecutor's Office by the Council of the EU, along with prosecutors of 21 other participating member countries.
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor received the credentials of newly appointed German Ambassadors Natalie Kauther and Adrian Pollman. Credentials were also presented by Algerian Ambassador Ali Mokrani, the Sultanate of Oman's Ambassador Yousuf Ahmed Hamed Aljabri and the Dominican Republic's Ambassador Lourdes Gisela Antonia Victoria-Kruse.
LJUBLJANA - The Human Rights Ombudsman assessed that the failure to comply with the government decree on the mandatory use of face masks in public indoor spaces cannot be penalised.
LJUBLJANA - Retail sales in Slovenia declined by 9.6% year-on-year from January to June as the coronavirus epidemic shut down most stores for several weeks in spring. The figures for June suggest the sector is slowly picking up.
LJUBLJANA - A survey carried out by the Slovenian Marketing Association and the pollster Valicon showed that the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted Slovenian companies much more unevenly than the recession in 2009; 58% of the surveyed companies have had negative effects, while 17% had positive.
LJUBLJANA - The Defence Ministry said a member of the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) serving at the Allied Joint Force Command Naples had been involved in a car accident in which one person died. Italian media reports said the man had caused the accident in which the wife of an Italian law enforcement officer died.
DOBROVNIK - Bicycle maker Spiegel Bikes announced that Slovenian ultra cyclist Marko Baloh had set a new 1,000-km time trial world record with 28 hours, 50 minutes and 14 seconds.
TUESDAY, 28 July
LJUBLJANA - Foreign minister Anže Logar and his Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlić Radman discussed measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and the EU Council presidency, agreeing that there was no need for stepping up border restrictions.
LJUBLJANA - The National Institute of Public Health reported that the majority of coronavirus cases in the past two months had been in care homes (80), followed by schools (54), shops (37), health institutions (32) and restaurants, pubs and cafes (13).
KLAGENFURT, Austria - 23 villages in Austria near the border with Slovenia will get bilingual signposts, according to decisions of the town councils of Sankt Jakob im Rosental and Sittersdorf. The Slovenian minority welcomed the move and expressed hope that other municipalities would follow suit.
LJUBLJANA - The newspaper Dnevnik reported that jurist Andraž Teršek, who failed to get elected a Constitutional Court judge by parliament June, had turned to the Constitutional Court asking it to annul the vote and order a new vote on his bid.
WEDNESDAY, 29 July
LJUBLJANA - The Supreme Court ordered the Competition Protection Agency to release 70% of shares of retailer Mercator it seized from Croatian Agrokor in December 2019. It said that the AVK did not have legal grounds to seize the shares.
LJUBLJANA - Uroš Lepoša was appointed new acting director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to replace Igor Lamberger after less than three months on the job.
LJUBLJANA - The newspaper Delo reported that Alfi, a Slovenian equity fund, had acquired over 80% of the debt owed by Tuš, one of the largest grocers in Slovenia, saying that a framework restructuring agreement to deleverage the grocer would be signed soon.
LJUBLJANA - Newsmapper, an advanced article-tracking tool developed by the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) made the European Commission's list of the best European innovations as part of the Innovation Radar platform.
LJUBLJANA - The Administrative Court stayed the government decision to dismiss early three members of the supervisory board of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija until adopting a final ruling in the matter.
LJUBLJANA - The Competition Protection Agency (AVK) warned about the drawbacks of changes to the media act regarding concentration monitoring. The agency advocates a strict separation of monitoring the public interest in media, which should not be in the domain of the AVK, and assessing concentration in line with the competition law.
LJUBLJANA - Violent storms with strong winds, downpours and hail caused substantial damage and disruption across central, eastern, northeastern and southeastern Slovenia. The hardest hit was the Domžale area in central Slovenia, where hail the size of an egg caused around EUR 2.5 million in damage.
THURSDAY, 30 July
LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana University Medical Centre (UKC), the country's largest hospital, said it was preparing for an expected surge in coronavirus infections with the arrival of autumn and winter. This was after 24 persons tested positive for the day before, taking the national case count to 2,139, including 242 active cases. The death toll rose to 118.
NOVO MESTO - The pharma group Krka reported EUR 803.8 million in sales revenue for the first half of the year, a 6% increase year-on-year, as net profit rose by 15% year-on-year to EUR 160.3 million. The management said the results were record-breaking.
LJUBLJANA - The telecoms group Telekom Slovenije reported EUR 335.4 million in operating revenue for the first half of the year, a decline of 2% year-on-year, while net profit was down 24% to EUR 14.8 million, which was blamed on the pandemic and the effects of the agreement on the sale of Planet TV.
IDRIJA - The industrial conglomerate Hidria, a major car industry supplier, announced it had signed a EUR 15 million deal with Germany's Audi and Porsche and Italy's Lamborghini under which it will develop and supply them with key aluminium engine parts.
LJUBLJANA - A poll conducted by Mediana and run by the newspaper Delo showed that more than half of respondents do not believe a potential attempt by the opposition to vote out the Janez Janša government would succeed.
LJUBLJANA - The Constitutional Court ruled that the 2019 supplementary budget documents were not in conflict with the Constitution. This was after the then opposition Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) petitioned the court in April 2019, claiming the budget expenditure planned was so high it violated the fiscal rule.
All our posts in this series are here
STA, 28 July 2020 - The National Blood Transfusion Centre (Zavod republike Slovenije za Transfuzijsko medicino) has issued a call to people who have recovered from Covid-19 to donate blood plasma, as it contains SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The call was issued a few days ago and so far nine people have donated plasma, the centre told the STA on Tuesday.
"It is important that we provide treatment with hyperimmune convalescent plasma in Slovenia. Only through plasma ... donations containing specific antibodies carried by those who recovered from Covid-19 can we get this treatment," the centre said when inviting donors.
Irena Razboršek of the centre told the STA that nine donations had been made, adding that the project was still in the early stage. The donated plasma is currently in storage, as test results are awaited and the centre continues to follow the latest studies.
"We must be aware that we do not have much experience with Covid-19 and that all data is very fresh," Razboršek said. However, experience from the coronavirus Sars and Mers outbreaks shows that convalescent plasma could be a good treatment for Covid-19, she said.
Throughout the past months the centre has also been doing its best to keep replenishing the national blood bank.
After initial reluctance by donors, which drained the bank in March, the amount of blood donated in June is above-average for this time of year.
However, blood donors must be healthy and must not have visited in the past two weeks a country that is deemed unsafe in epidemiologic terms, which at the moment also includes Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
STA, 28 July 2020 - In the past two months, the majority of coronavirus cases were detected in care homes (80 infections), followed by schools (54), shops (37), health institutions (32) and restaurants, pubs and cafes (13), show the National Public Health Institute (NIJZ) data.
A total of 30 infections were confirmed among manufacturing workers, same as among administration workers. Warehouses saw 16 cases, kindergartens 14, universities 13 and the public administration 12.
Moreover, ten lorry drivers got infected with the coronavirus as well as eight construction and engineering workers, four people working in banks and three police officers.
Špela Horjak, the government deputy spokesperson for coronavirus, told the press today that as much as 40% of the cases confirmed in the past two weeks were detected in various workplaces, urging extra caution there.
Metoda Dodič Fikfak, the head of the Ljubljana UKC Institute of Occupational Medicine, meanwhile said that coronavirus clusters in companies were mostly a result of a more carefree attitude there, advising reintroducing and heeding anti-corona measures.
Whereas companies did not turn to the institute for support before the Covid-19 epidemic, there have been plenty of requests for help with work organisation after the epidemic was declared, she said, adding that the institute also had a vital role in adapting the running of Slovenia's central hospital to the new circumstances.
