STA, 6 December 2020 - New decrees on measures to stem the Covid-19 epidemic entered into force on Sunday, with no substantial changes, as restrictions on gatherings, movement and sale of goods remained in force. The decrees had to be re-published as the Constitutional Court ruled the extension of distance learning was invalid as it had not been announced properly.
A total of 1,030 new coronavirus infections were confirmed in Slovenia on Saturday in 3,744 tests, for a positivity rate of 27.5%, while 44 patients died of Covid-19, the government announced on Sunday.
The government adopted at Saturday's correspondence session a new decree banning gatherings in educational institutions, to which the country's top court related to, as well as new decrees on other restrictions based on instructions from the government's legal office.
The court said on Thursday the decision by the education minister to switch to distance learning due to a worsening of the coronavirus epidemic in October and the decrees with which the government had been extending it were invalid because they had not been published in the Official Gazette.
In a response, the government said on Friday it would remedy the situation and again decide on relevant measures and publish them in the Official Gazette, as requested by the Constitutional Court.
Schooling will this continue to be implemented remotely, with the decree also being in force for educational institutions for children and youths with special needs (except those that have been established for work with children with emotional and behavioural disorders).
The Constitutional Court said in the ruling that, if the government decided to extend the closure of schools, conditions would be met for a temporary staying of the ban on in-person schooling in schools and institutes for children with special needs.
The number of children in such schools and institutes is too small for their return to significantly impact the efforts to stem the spreading of the new coronavirus and manage the epidemic, the court said, adding that further implementation of what is potentially an unconstitutional regulation could have detrimental consequences on special needs children.
With the remaining decrees, gatherings of people in public places, movement between municipalities and movement between 9pm and 6am remain prohibited. Public passenger transport remains suspended and all non-essential shops closed.
