STA, 24 August 2020 - Two people died of Covid-19 in Slovenia on Sunday and 14 tested positive in a total of 543 coronavirus tests, according to the most recent data released by the government on Monday. Today, thousands of holidaymakers are expected to return from Croatia, because arrivals will be ordered to quarantine for 14 days as of tomorrow.
In total 2,665 of SARS-CoV-2 infections have been confirmed in Slovenia, with 410 infections being active yesterday, of which 17 infected persons were in hospital. The death toll climbed to 133, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.
The government and health authorities expect the situation to worsen in the coming fortnight, as thousands of Slovenians are returning from Croatia, where the number of Covid-19 cases has skyrocketed.
In the past weeks a significant share of cases confirmed in Slovenia was in people who got infected while on holiday in Croatia.
Last week, Slovenia red-listed the neighbouring country, which means that people coming from Croatia are ordered to quarantine for two weeks. The government, however, gave holidaymakers until the end of today to return without mandatory quarantine.
Health officials have nonetheless recommended that they self-isolate for a while. It seems that many holidaymakers have waited for the very last day to return and tailbacks are expected at border crossings today.
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Concerns about the situation in Croatia
STA, 24 August 2020 - Jelko Kacin, the government's spokesperson for Covid-19, has described Croatia as a "serious threat to all other EU countries" due to the coronavirus situation there. "Time will tell how serious the situation there is. I have many reasons to worry," he told the latest edition of Reporter magazine.
He said Croatia successfully tackling coronavirus was in Slovenia's strategic interest. "They are our immediate neighbours, many of our nationals holidayed there. I think that all the well-meaning warnings expressed by our side and by me were worthy of (timely) attention," he said.
According to Kacin, Slovenia will not allow the situation to deteriorate the way it did in spring. "We simply cannot allow what's spreading from Western Balkans. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia were placed on the red list a long time ago for objective reasons, now our southern neighbour, with the numbers of infections that it has 'produced' itself, has placed itself in this group of countries."
"This is not to say that our neighbour is a Western Balkans country, I'm talking about the state of the epidemic there," he said.
Kacin holidayed on the Croatian coast, and after Croatia was placed on the red list some have accused him of double standards. He rejects this notion.
"Croatian RTL television asked me how come I decided to come to them. I explained that in coming to Krk I did not come to them, I came to my place. The building in which I spend my holidays is property of my family. We've been holidaying on this island for a long time, I had not come to visit their institutions."
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