STA, 15 December 2020 - The Ljubljana City Council has adopted a new strategy for the development of tourism in 2021-2027. The main goals include increasing off-peak season visits and average spending, and extending the average stay. The strategy acknowledges the post-coronavirus tourism recovery will take time.

The Slovenian capital seeks to increase the number of tourist nights by 14%, with the average spending per tourist to rise from EUR 101 to EUR 140 and average duration of stay to increase from 2.5 to 3 nights.

Two of the cornerstones of the city's tourism remain the same: meetings and short city breaks. The third pillar will be gastronomy, which the city sees as a significant development opportunity.

Overall, the success of the strategy will hinge on increasing visitor numbers between November and March.

One of the events designed to entice tourists in the off-peak season is a new Ljubljana Love Festival in February with a series of weekend events such as exhibitions, concerts and dance festivals.

November Gourmet, which would tie the city's gastronomy with local customs, music and dance, would revolve around St. Martin's Day, the traditional Slovenian celebration of must turning into wine.

The strategy was confirmed by the City Council at Monday's session.

STA, 15 December 2020 - Another 1,524 people tested positive for coronavirus in Slovenia on Monday and a further 44 Covid-19 patients lost their lives as the number of hospitalised patients dropped somewhat, government data show.

Of the 5,634 tests performed yesterday, 27.05% returned positive results, meaning the positivity rate was slightly up again after dropping to 25.67% from over 31% the day before.

"Even though the share of positive tests remains high, the number of newly confirmed infections over the past three days compared with the figures a week ago is falling after all," Jelko Kacin, the government Covid-19 spokesman, said.

The number of new cases confirmed yesterday was down 103 from a week ago, as 49 fewer infections were confirmed on Sunday than a week ago and even 200 fewer on Saturday than a week ago, said Kacin.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 dropped by 36 to 1,284 after 127 were discharged home and 115 were newly admitted, and the number of those treated in intensive care units fell by four to 204.

The latest figures take the total number of infections confirmed so far to over 98,000. The death toll has increased to 2,151.

The seven-day average of new cases is 1,496, and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents is 984, government data show.

Voluntary mass testing to begin in Ljubljana next week

STA, 15 December 2020 - Health Minister Tomaž Gantar has announced that voluntary mass testing for coronavirus could start in Ljubljana as early as next week prior to Christmas holidays, with testing to be made available more widely after New Year's.

"We'll start performing testing as a trial next week in the Ljubljana area; testing will be voluntary, with only health insurance card being required," Gantar said.

Announcing the plan at the daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Gantar said in Ljubljana testing could be performed as early as between 21 and 24 December.

He said about 60 such rapid tests could be taken per hour and testing would be performed for about nine to ten hours a day.

Later, when 100 mobile testing units are available, mass voluntary testing will also be available elsewhere in the country.

The ministry last week issued a public call for mobile unit teams, receiving bids from 30 providers for 100 mobile testing units on the ground.

Although the first call for rapid antigen tests was unsuccessful with a repeat call expiring today, the minister expects 30,000 such tests to be available on 21 December and as many more on 28 December.

After the New Year the priority for testing will be teachers with the priority measure after the New Year being to allow schools to reopen on 4 January or a week later.

STA, 14 December 2020 - Slovenia has been promised to get some 5,000 doses of anti-coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, Health Minister Tomaž Gantar told MPs in questions time in parliament on Monday. This is the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which is expected to be green-lighted by the European Medicines Agency on 29 December.

However, Gantar is worried that given the strong anti-vaccination movement, Slovenia would in the long-run not achieve a 60% vaccination rate, which scientists deem necessary to guarantee herd immunity.

This is one of the reasons the country decided to buy the vaccine via the European Commission and the Medicines Agency, to raise trust in the safety of the vaccine, he told the MPs.

Once the entire first batch has arrived in the country, it is expected to suffice for 50,000-60,000 people. The country would earmark EUR 10.5 million for anti-Covid vaccination, which will be voluntary, this year.

In line with the national anti-coronavirus vaccination strategy, the first to be vaccinated will be healthcare staff and staff at care homes.

STA, 14 December 2020 - School will continue remotely at least until the end of the year given the demanding epidemiological situation. This is to protect the health of teachers as well as children, Education Minister Simona Kustec said on Monday.

Kustec said remote learning was generally going well and without major problems, and in the current circumstances it is the best possible way to ensure the right to education.

When the epidemiological situation improves, the priority will be to open schools, first for children in the first three years of primary school and for special-needs children.

Children with special needs will return to school as soon as experts give the green light. "We don't have this assessment yet," she told reporters on the margins of a National Assembly session.

After almost two months of severe restrictions, the government decided to relax some measures starting tomorrow. Schools are not included in the relaxation package.

The president of the Slovenian Headmasters' Association, Gregor Pečan, told the STA the decision was expected but expressed concern that industries with strong lobbying power might disrupt the course of restriction easing as laid out recently by the government.

He said that some of the easing planned for tomorrow caused confusion and uncertainty among teachers. "If this is only about the ability of individual lobbies to influence, this is unusual, at the very least, while I personally believe it is bad for citizens."

Even though he supports the efforts of the industrial chambers, Pečan is worried that the scheme of restriction easement will indeed work the way it has been set out. In case of lobbying, Pečan doubts the relevance of declaring the five epidemic stages that lay the foundation to restrict or impose different restrictions.

Commenting on Kustec's position that remote schooling was going without major issues, Pečan said: "It's definitely going better than in the first wave".

There are however still some technical issues, and parents find it harder to help their children because many more are working now than in the spring, he said.

STA, 13 December 2020 - The government has decided to temporarily ease some restrictions starting on Tuesday. Some services will resume nationwide, some will be limited to four regions with the best epidemiological situation, Prime Minister Janez Janša announced on Twitter on Sunday. The new measures will apply until 23 December.

Nationwide, public transportation will restart in limited fashion, which means up to half capacity. Gondolas will be limited to one person or one family, according to Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec. Hair salons, flower shops, car washes and dry cleaners will be allowed to reopen.

In four regions with the best epidemiological situation - Central Slovenia, Goriška, the coastal Obalno-Kraška region and Gorenjska - footwear, apparel and sports equipment shops as well as car dealerships will open.

Moreover, in these four regions individuals using the national exposure notification app #OstaniZdrav will be able to move between municipalities despite the general ban on inter-municipal movement.

Janša said the government was keeping an eye on the capacity of the health system and the 7-day rolling average of new infections by statistical regions.

"This is why there may be changes in individual regions," he said on Twitter, noting that changes could go either way.

On Thursday the government plans to analyse the latest statistics and determine the restrictions regime during the Christmas and New Year's holidays, he said.

Janša thanked health workers "and everyone heeding restrictions and protecting health and lives". "With your help we managed to stop the epidemic before it would exceed the capacities of our health system".

The announcement comes after the government held separate meetings yesterday with representatives of the medical profession and business in a bid to gauge whether and to what extent is could relax the nearly two-months long lockdown.

Prior to the meetings, health experts indicated they were opposed to any relaxation of restrictions given the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital, whereas businesses were pushing for the opening of as many types of businesses as possible, albeit in exchange for strict precautionary measures.

Slovenia has had fairly high numbers of new infections and one of the highest mortality rates in the world in recent weeks, but the epidemic has been plateauing for over a month at roughly 20,000-21,000 active cases.

Slovenia's twelve statistical regions have a seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants from 349 to 843, according to the latest data released by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ). The four most favourable regions are in the 349-395 range.

STA, 13 December 2020 - The government has extended for another week the temporary closure of shops offering non-essential goods and services to consumers in person, as it is due to resume debate on coronavirus restrictions today.

A new decree extending the ban, which was first imposed on 16 November in a bid to contain the coronavirus epidemic, is effective from Sunday.

The government opted for the extension late last night following consultations with health and business officials, the assessment being that the coronavirus situation in the country is not improving.

At the consultations, held at Brdo estate yesterday, hospital managers warned that hospitals have limited reserves for any potential increase in the number of Covid-19 patients.

According to a report by TV Slovenija, the officials warned the number of patients requiring hospital treatment could increase by up to 30% in January, also due to other respiratory conditions.

"We've given the reserves we had into fighting Covid-19. Patients with other diseases who also need beds are coming," Aleš Rozman, director of the Golnik University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, told Radio Slovenija.

Bojana Beović, the head of the Covid-19 advisory group, speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting with the government, said: "We can secure, let's say an extra 100 beds, but this means another 100 gravelly ill, more dead and more people with long-term consequences."

Under the government lockdown exit strategy, the number of hospitalised patients should fall bellow 1,200 or the number of daily infections below 1,350 on average over the past seven days for the first easing of measures.

While data for Saturday are yet to be published, a total of 1,276 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised on Friday, as the seven-day average of new cases stood at 1,526, according to covid-19.sledilnik.org tracker site.

The government also met yesterday representatives of businesses, who have been stepping up their calls for the reopening of some shops such as hairdresser's, florist's and small clothes stores.

After the meeting, which dragged late into the night, Branko Meh, the head of the Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business, told the STA the government heard out their arguments so they expected some easing soon.

"We talked mainly about regional opening of hair and beauty salons, flower shops and clothes stores," he said, adding that the business expressed their commitment to abide by safety measures.

Boštjan Gorjup, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also expects that the government will start easing some measures gradually in the coming days.

The government will resume debate on coronavirus measures in a scaled-down format today, according to the Government Communication Office. Another possible item on the agenda is the 7th stimulus package.

STA, 13 December 2020 - A total of 830 people tested positive for coronavirus in Slovenia on Saturday as 31.3% of the tests came back positive. Government data also show Covid-19 hospitalisations rising above 1,300 and 22 more patients losing their lives.

A total of 1,315 Covid-19 patients were treated in hospitals yesterday, 39 more than the day before, despite 52 being discharged home. The number of patients in intensive care units rose by eight to 201.

A total of 2,648 tests for Sars-Cov-2 were conducted yesterday.

With the latest fatalities, the country's death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 2,063. The total case count since the start of the pandemic has exceeded 96,300.

The 7-day average of new cases is 1,497.3, according to tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

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STA, 11 December 2020 - Ljubljana and Novo Mesto police are investigating posters and graffiti which have appeared in both cities and labelled some medical experts exposed during the coronavirus epidemic "murderers of the Slovenian nation".

Posters with an image of NIJZ director Milan Krek appeared overnight in Novo Mesto, south-east, labelling him a murderer of the Slovenian nation, the regional news portal Moja Dolenjska reported today.

The Novo Mesto Police Department told the STA the police had noticed the posters and flyers already on Thursday. It launched an investigation and notified the local authorities, which removed them.

The Ljubljana Police Department said similar stickers and graffiti also appeared in the Slovenian capital. The police are now gathering facts and information.

Moja Dolenjska reported the threats in Ljubljana targeted Covid-19 task force head Bojana Beović, Golnik Clinic director Aleš Rozman, who is also a member of the task force, and the government's coronavirus spokesperson Jelko Kacin.

Krek was a target of threats and harassment before. He told the STA earlier this week he had received the last life threat last Friday, while he was often followed when leaving the NIJZ offices.

At the end of November, he made headlines when rapper and anti-masker Zlatko followed him in the street posing as a journalist and video-recording him.

Rozman meanwhile said a while ago he had been receiving offensive and threatening e-mails by anonymous senders.

Last Friday the criminal police received reports of threats made to staff advising the government on Covid-19, and provided them with police protection.

It did not specify how many advisers had received the threatening letters or which measures had been introduced to protect them.

Two days later, the Medical Chamber condemned all such threats saying they were unacceptable, and urged police to act.

STA, 11 December 2020 - A total of 6,453 coronavirus tests were conducted in Slovenia on Thursday and 28% or 1,813 came back positive. The number of patients in hospitals rose by ten to 1,268, and the number of those requiring intensive care was up by seven to 196. Forty-nine patients died, the same as the day before.

A total of 113 people were discharged from hospital, the government said. Out of the 49 patient who died yesterday, 34 were in hospitals, and another 15 in care homes. With the new deaths, the total toll rose to 1,998.

The number of active cases in the country rose by 1% to 21,003, while 93,734 coronavirus cases have been recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

The seven-day rolling average per 100,000 residents rose by 0.3% from the day before to 1,510.9, according to the tracker site.

It was the highest in the central Slovenia and the lowest in the Zasavje region.

A total of 147 new infections were confirmed in Ljubljana and 82 in Maribor. The 14-day rolling average per 100,000 people is the highest in the Posavje region (1,482) and the lower in Goriška (685), said deputy Covid-19 spokesperson Maja Bratuša.

Central Slovenia's 14-day incidence is also below 700, at 697.

Care homes remain important hotspots with 138 new infections confirmed among residents and 71 among staff members. On a positive note, 106 residents and 47 employees recovered from the disease.

There are currently 2,568 active infections among care home residents and 1,122 among staff, including 651 among medical staff, Bratuša said.

The number of infections in five social protection institutes was up by one to 241 among users and up by six to 165 among staff.

STA, 11 December 2020 - The Chamber of Commerce (TZS) has again called on the government to reopen non-essential stores. The appeal comes ahead of Saturday's government session where the future course of action to stem the epidemic is to be determined. Non-grocery stores have been closed four months and the chamber estimates the lost revenue at over EUR 2 billion.

The organisation highlighted on Friday that stores were not a source of infections or a factor aggravating the epidemiological status. It warned that retailers were facing huge problems, including seasonal goods piling up in their warehouses.

Moreover, consumers have been turning to the chamber reporting difficulties in acquiring urgently needed products.

"The closure of retail services is not underpinned by an assessment of the actual epidemiological risk in certain activities," said the head of the chamber Mariča Lah, adding that the lockdown had been causing disproportionate damage.

Retailers have been consistently heeding prevention measures, she added, calling on the authorities to reopen the stores and take steps that would aim to contain the actual coronavirus hotspots.