STA, 8 October 2020 - Prime Minister Janez Janša called a session of the National Security Council for Friday afternoon after a record 387 people tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Apart from the coronavirus situation, the session, scheduled for 3pm, is also to discuss illegal migrations.
In total, 7,507 have tested positive since the pandemic reached Slovenia in the spring and 160 people have died. Data for Wednesday show some 2,700 active infections in Slovenia.
The share of positive tests has exceeded 10% for the first time on Wednesday and the virus is spreading fast among school and healthcare staff.
Today, the government adopted new restrictive measures, capping the number of people in gatherings to 10 as of tomorrow. Gatherings of up to 500 people will be possible only with the approval of the National Institute for Public Health (NIJZ).
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Posted by Janez Janša on Tuesday, 6 October 2020
Food and drinks will no longer be served at events, said Interior Minister Aleš Hojs, adding that the police will also conduct strict oversight of compliance with new gathering restrictions at weekly Friday protests.
Moreover, bars and restaurants will only be allowed to serve customers sitting down and observing a personal distance of 1.5 metres, unless they are members of the same household.
The National Security Council session was called a week after Hojs said that the migrant smuggling market was in full swing, also adding that the Interior Ministry still wanted to give the military police powers to help out along the border.
Talking to public broadcaster TV Slovenija tonight, Hojs said the ministry realised "the Schengen code allows some other state bodies to control borders as well". The ministry explained subsequently that this involved the Financial Administration, inspectorates as well as the military.
Between 1 January and 15 September, the police have detected 11,117 attempts at illegal border crossings, compared to 10,906 in the same period last year.
