STA, 21 July 2020 - Slovenia recorded 24 new coronavirus infections from 914 tests on Monday, the highest daily increase since 10 July. One Covid-19 patient died, bringing the death toll to 114, fresh government data show.
There are currently 22 patients in hospital, up from 19 the day before, as two were discharged from hospital and five new patients were admitted. The number of patients in intensive care remained at three.
According to the national Covid-19 tracker site, there are now 238 active cases out of the total of 1,977 cases recorded since the state of the pandemic.
Most of the latest cases, six, were recorded in Hrastnik in central Slovenia, where an outbreak has been reported at a care home.
Monday was the third day in a row that a fatality was recorded. Before that there had been no confirmed Covid-19-related deaths for over a month and a half.
The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) warned today the bulk of the infections in recent days were locally transmitted, after an initial surge in imported cases that triggered the renewed rise in infections in late June and early July.
STA, 22 July - Slovenia's Covid-19 death toll has increased to 115 after another fatality was reported for Tuesday, along with 29 new coronavirus infections, an 11-day high, fresh data from the government show.
The latest cases come from 1,150 tests for Sars-CoV-2 conducted yesterday. They bring the national total of cases so far confirmed to 2,006, of which 243 are active cases.
A total of 22 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, two of them in intensive care, after one patient was discharged yesterday and one intensive care patient died, a fatality for the fourth day running.
Tuesday's cases include three at the Hrastnik care home in central Slovenia, two among the residents and another staff member, the facility's director, Drago Kopušar, has told the STA.
There are now 20 of the 128 elderly residents and eight of the 75 staff infected at the care home. Nine of the infected residents have been moved to the Šempeter hospital in the west of the country.
Another hotspot in the Hrastnik municipality, which has a population of 9,000, is a housing estate Log nad Hrastnikom, where disinfection measures are being reimposed. Inspectors are also checking whether quarantine orders are being complied with. Hrastnik had 34 active cases as of Monday.
Of the 104 confirmed cases last week, only two were imported.
Epidemiologist Nuška Čakš Jager told the press several hotspots were currently active, the virus having spread not only at retirement homes but also at parties, weddings and in several companies.
She said epidemiologists were still able to trace contacts of the newly infected persons but were close to reaching their limits.
Infections are now increasing among the older population yet again, making it more likely that the newly infected will require hospital treatment.
Infections disease specialist Mateja Logar of the UKC Ljubljana hospital said Slovenia was "far from having everything under control" given that the virus keeps spreading in municipalities that had been coronavirus-free in the first wave.
