STA, 24 August 2020 - The national voluntary contact tracing app, designed to help curb the coronavirus epidemic, has been downloaded by around 37,400 users since it became available last Monday, the Public Administration Ministry has told the STA.

This is the number of users who have downloaded the app #OstaniZdrav (#StayHealthy) by Sunday at 1pm, the ministry said on Monday, adding that the feedback was positive, with users praising the user-friendliness and low battery consumption.

The modified version of the German app Corona-Warn-App has been available in the Google Play store since Monday at 4pm, and was downloaded by around 5,000 mobile phone users in the first 24 hours, said Minister Boštjan Koritnik.

The app is currently available only for devices with the Android operating system and one of the most frequently asked questions at the ministry's app call centre is when it will be available for the devices using the iOS operating system.

Asked how many ten-place TAN codes, which are received by individuals with a confirmed coronavirus infection, had been entered in the app in the first week, the ministry said that this data was still being collected in cooperation with health authorities.

The data are also being analysed and will be communicated to the public expectedly in the coming days.

Presenting the app a week ago, the ministry said that should the situation deteriorate, it might also develop an app whose use will be mandatory for some persons.

The government has recently put in place a legislative provision that would allow it to make use of a mobile app mandatory for those with confirmed infections and persons who have been ordered to quarantine.

Koritnik said at the time that the reasons for which this provision had been inserted in the latest anti-corona legislation in July had not ceased. On the contrary, it increasingly looks like a mandatory app might be needed.

You can get the app here

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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."

STA, 23 August 2020 - Out of 760 coronavirus tests conducted in Slovenia on Saturday, 34 came back positive, the highest weekend number since late March. There were no Covid-19 related fatalities. A total of 17 persons were in hospital with Covid-19, none requiring intensive care, show fresh official data.

One person was discharged form hospital yesterday. The national death toll remains at 131.

Most of the latest cases were detected in Ljubljana and eastern Slovenia and in persons aged 15-24 or 25-34.

So far, Slovenia has recorded 2,651 coronavirus cases. Currently, there are 402 active cases in the country, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

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Over 50% of all imported Covid-19 infections in summer from Croatia

STA, 22 August 2020 - As many as 300 persons infected with Sars-CoV-2 came to Slovenia from abroad, of whom 55% from Croatia, shows data obtained by National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) epidemiologists and labs for the period between 1 June and 21 August.

The majority of a total of 165 persons who brought the virus from Croatia, or 120, were persons aged 15 to 34. The majority, or 108, were men.

Another 26 persons got infected from them in Slovenia, NIJZ said on Saturday.

Since the number if infected persons returning from Croatia was rapidly rising, NIJZ notified all EU members through the early warning and response system (EWRS).

The number was at 16 two weeks ago, rose to 64 last week and is currently at 57 this week. However, NIJZ expects this week's figure to exceed last week's.

This was one of the main reasons why the coronavirus task force and NIJZ proposed to the government to impose a two-week quarantine for Slovenians returning from Croatia.

Since yesterday, Croatia has thus been on Slovenia's red list of coronavirus countries with a two-week quarantine.

There are some exceptions, however, including for those currently still on holiday in Croatia; they can return home without being quarantined until Monday midnight

STA, 22 August 2020 - Slovenian tourism will see a 70% drop in tourists from abroad this year, but Slovenians holidaying in the country in big numbers, also due to tourist vouchers distributed by the state to help the industry, will offset the loss somewhat, so that the overall drop is to amount to around 50%.

To accommodate the industry to a new reality resulting from the coronavirus, Slovenian partners are working on a recovery plan, Slovenia's Tourist Board (STO) announced.

The STO is aware people will always want to travel, yet not at all cost, but to "destinations which can guarantee a safe and at the same time pleasant experience", STO director Maja Pak said in a release.

The STO is thus working together with the Economy Ministry, tourism industry representatives, product associations and destination managers to prepare a recovery plan for Slovenian tourism.

The document is to digitalise and optimise marketing and promotion to bring them in line with travellers' new habits, and bring new criteria to assess success in tourism.

Since the coronavirus hit the country in March, the STO has launched several campaigns, focussing on promoting Slovenia as a green, safe and responsible destination.

Just recently, Virtuoso Travel Week, an online event promoting boutique and luxury tourism, was attended by over 4,000 tourist agents and destination managers from 96 countries.

The STO is also enhancing communication with foreign businesses with new projects.

One is a digital platform enabling travel agents to deepen their knowledge about Slovenia and potentially include it among their destinations.

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) data shows interest in travel is still below last year's, but despite a 20% drop in the interest, Europe is still the most desired tourist destination.

STA, 22 August 2020 - Contrary to expectations, Slovenians holidaying in neighbouring Croatia are not yet returning home in great numbers after the country was put on Slovenia's red list in terms of Covid-19. Waiting times on the border to enter Slovenia are thus comparable to previous years.

More massive returns are expected on Sunday and Monday, as Slovenians can return from Croatia without having to go into a 14-day quarantine until Monday midnight.

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Police data from border crossings with Croatia shows that it is mainly Germans and Czechs crossing into Slovenia, including at two of the main border crossings - Dragonja in the south-west and Gruškovje in the east.

Data from the Traffic Information Centre meanwhile shows that the longest waiting time to enter Slovenia is an hour and a half at Gruškovje.

Many are still also heading for Croatia, and have to wait around an hour at Dragonja, the longest waiting time.

Mirko Skuhala of border police at Gruškovje told the press today that 11,000 vehicles entered Slovenia last night, which is on a par with the same period last year.

STA, 22 August 2020 - As many as 43 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Slovenia on Friday, when 1,203 tests were carried out, the latest government data, released on Saturday, shows. This is the same as the four-month record recorded on Wednesday. One person meanwhile died yesterday, which put the national Covid-19 death toll at 131.

Eighteen Covid-19 patients were in hospital, but none required intensive care.

A total of 2,617 Sars-CoV-2 infections have so far been confirmed in the country, while the number of active cases is now at 370, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

The majority of new infections, ten, were again recorded in the municipality of Ljubljana. The capital was one of 26 municipalities where infections were recorded on Friday. The city has also the largest number of active cases, 90, followed by Celje with 24.

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Slovenian health authorities expect infections to further rise in the coming weeks as many Slovenian holidaymakers are returning from Croatia, which has been since yesterday again on the country's red list.

According to the necenzurirano.si news portal, 52 tourists from Slovenia got infected in Croatia in the period between 7 July and 17 August, all but one in Novalja on the island of Pag, which is known for its night life.

The virus has meanwhile not spread in the retirement home in Šmarje pri Jelšah, where one resident tested positive last week. The care home's director, Gordana Drimel, told the STA on Saturday that all the tests carried out were negative.

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 21 August 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Lack of info makes it hard to see through govt measures

STA, 21 August 2020 - A poor flow of information stemming from the coronavirus pandemic makes it harder to compare Slovenian government decisions to developments in other countries, the left-wing Mladina weekly says in Friday's editorial, headlined Closed Society. It criticises a decision to introduce quarantine for returns from Croatia instead of offering testing.

Editor-in-chief Grega Repovž says that we are witnessing a year when information flow has drastically slowed down globally, with the focus on Covid-related information.

The lack of information makes comparison with other countries harder, so Slovenians see government decisions as "completely logical and the only possibly ones".

Repovž points to a decision to impose a two-week quarantine for travellers returning from Croatia, saying public debate is centred on whether to introduce it or not, instead of considering a third option - mandatory testing.

While this option has been introduced in the majority of Western countries, there is no public pressure to consider it in Slovenia and the government is not mentioning it.

If one decides on voluntary testing, they can do it at only two points, and it comes with a high price tag of over 90 euro.

Belgium, a much richer country, offers it for a mere 46 euro, and it is free of charge in Austria or Germany for those returning from other countries.

Repovž says that many people being quarantined has economic consequences for entire Slovenia which go beyond the potential cost of testing for the state.

But being closed information-wise, we see the government's thoughtless moves as the only option, he says.

Education is another area the editor takes issue with, saying the government should have changed legislation to give schools more autonomy in adjusting to Covid-19.

Instead, headmasters and teachers are terrified not knowing whether they will be able to observe all the recommendations.

Repovž says that if there was no emergency due to the epidemic, all major world media outlets would have sent their teams to Slovenia by now.

The epidemic has somewhat concealed the fact that Slovenia is an EU member state where anti-establishment protests have been going on for the fifth month running.

Was there no epidemic, it would be clearer the country is in a deep political crisis, says Repovž, adding that foreign media will probably realise that in the autumn when protests get more radical.

Problematic East European countries linking up in an ever louder and self-confident manner gives the EU and its powerful members more opportunities to react in a harder and clearer manner to the course pursued by the European East, to which Slovenia now belongs, concludes the editorial.

Demokracija: Remote learning prevents left-wing indoctrination

STA, 20 August 2020 - Two weeks before students are to return to brick-and-mortar schools, the right-wing weekly Demokracija says there would be no harm for students if remote learning continues in the autumn, saying that left-wing politicians are critical of this scenario because it would make it harder for them to indoctrinate children.

The weekly says that the results of the matura secondary school leaving exam were better this year following months of remote learning, but the left wing leaves this out of debates. Instead, they focus on "socialisation, which is actually indoctrination and has been made harder in distant learning."

"They are scared that they are losing power over the young and over their training to become future obedient multiculturalists and rainbow warriors," Demokracija editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says under the headline Dialectics of Good and Bad.

When a child learns by themselves or with the help of parents, focus shits away from things deemed important in the 2011 education white paper put together by a left government.

The biggest victory of cultural Marxists was to change education white books so as to render knowledge unimportant. Standards have been lowered to accommodate the "new citizens, arrivals from countries where the average IQ is by up to two standard deviation classes lower than the average IQ in developed countries".

The goal was social engineering that made subjects like the mother tongue, mathematics, physics and other natural sciences unimportant, replacing them with environmental activism, hunger and poverty, LGBT rights, multiculturalism, the fault of Europeans for the underdeveloped third world, green energy and social fairness.

The consequence is that children are raised to be mediocre to reduce the differences between them. "This is a typical socialist concept of being equal in poverty, but with an enlightened (and self-proclaimed) elite at the head".

The elite is the only one to benefit from the system that makes the development of any country virtually impossible by repressing meritocracy, whereas the latter benefits everybody, even those who are unsuccessful. The meritocratic elite can split an atom, research nanoparticles, send a man to the moon, make iPhones and laptops and boost food production with sophisticated technology.

To raise as many such people as possible, the education system should only provide young people with knowledge, they can form their own view of the world later on by themselves. This is the only way we can move forward, Demokracija says.

"You don't believe me? I ask you, which of these studies is more important to tackle hunger and poverty: studies by various 'peace institutes' about patriarchy in rural areas and gender equality in agricultural work, or a study by a technical institute about new and more effective ways to grow corn and cereal?"

All our posts in this series are here

Jump to the changes on the red and green lists

STA, 21 August 2020 - Following a new four-month high of 43 cases on Wednesday, Thursday's coronavirus tests confirmed 38 new infections. One person died, which raises the death toll to 130.

There are currently 18 Covid-19 patients in hospital. Nobody needs intensive care and one patient was discharged from hospital on Thursday.

The largest number of cases, nine, was again confirmed in Ljubljana, while infections were discovered in 23 more municipalities.

There have been so far 2,574 confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infections, with 341 active at present, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

The Hrastnik care home, the site of a major breakout in July, said that two more of its employees were confirmed to have contracted Sars-CoV-2 in recent days, which means it presently has 22 active infections among residents sand six among staff.

While dozens of positive cases have been recorded at the Hrastnik care home since 10 July, no infections have been detected outside of the care home in the town for three weeks.

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Note: You can't find the yellow list online, but it includes all nations not on the green and red lists

Nine countries added to red list, nine to yellow list

STA, 21 August 2020 - Slovenia has placed nine countries, including six from Europe, on the red list of countries where the risk of coronavirus is high and quarantine required for most travellers. Nine countries slipped from the new green list effective today.

Under a decision adopted by the government yesterday, nine European countries have lost the green status: Denmark, Greece, France, Ireland, Iceland, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, and some regions of Spain that had previously been green.

At the same time, ten countries were added to the red list: Croatia, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Venezuela.

If a person regardless of their citizenship enters Slovenia coming from one of the countries on the red list, they are put in a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Exemptions apply in a limited number of cases.

Even though Croatia is on the red list as of today, Slovenian holidaymakers will be able to return without being ordered to quarantine until the end of the day on Monday, a move aiming to reduce tailbacks at border crossings.

However, Health Ministry State Secretary Tina Bregant called on all those returning to self-isolate even though they will not have a formal decision to go into quarantine.

While in the past weeks coronavirus cases returning from Croatia were mostly youngsters who got infected at parties, Bregant said today that infections are now being confirmed also in people who kept to themselves while on vacation.

In a red-listed country a visit to the grocery store where somebody had not been wearing a mask could be enough to be infected, she said. "Croatia is now objectively in the red. It is objectively dangerous there now."

Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said he believes the number of daily confirmed cases will increase in the coming weeks, as thousands of Slovenians return from Croatia.

Bulgaria was removed from the red list and now falls in the middle, yellow category on Slovenia's traffic-light classification, which includes all countries that are neither on the green or the red list.

There is a quarantine requirement for travellers from countries on the yellow list, but there are many exemptions.

Following the latest change, the green list includes 19 countries seen as being less dangerous. Almost all are in Europe. The red list now spans almost 70 countries.

There are no coronavirus-related restrictions for travellers from countries that are on the green list.

STA, 20 August 2020 - Slovenia has put Croatia on the red list of countries from which travellers must undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine effective on Friday, but the government has also put in place a number of exemptions to make sure trade, commerce and cross-border ties with Croatia as well as other neighbouring countries run smoothly.

There will be a special exemption for owners and lessees of boats and real estate. They will be allowed to leave the country for 48 hours to sort out any errands concerning their property without having to quarantine on return. Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said this was not a blank check for such persons to travel back and forth all the time.

This exemption will apply to all neighbouring countries in the event they are placed on the red list; Croatia is currently the only red-listed neighbouring country.

There is also a new exemption for those who have a medical exam in a neighbouring country: they are allowed to return without quarantining if they get back immediately after the completed exam and present evidence thereof.

Additional exemptions have been added for all red-listed countries. Professional athletes and their staff, and members of foreign official delegations will be allowed to enter without quarantining but must present a negative Covid-19 test.

Students, those travelling for family matters and those attending funeral will be allowed to travel outside Slovenia without quarantining as well, provided they are back within 24 hours.

The government had debated red-listing only the most heavily affected regions in Croatia, which is exactly what Germany has done, but Hojs said the average across the entire country was already "deep in the red zone" so it was decided to put the entire country on the red list.

There were also ideas that people could avoid quarantine by taking a coronavirus test, but according to Hojs, epidemiologists said a 14-day quarantine was the best precautionary measure.

Since there are well over 100,000 Slovenians currently on holiday in Croatia, the government has given them until the end of Monday to return without having to quarantine. This should prevent heavy traffic on the border.

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Hojs said the government would monitor the situation in Croatia on a weekly basis and change the relevant decree if the epidemiological situation there improves.

In a related development, the government removed Greece from the green list, placing it on the interim, yellow list, from which most arrivals except Slovenian nationals and residents must undergo quarantine.

At the same time, conditions have been tightened for some persons who must present a negative Covid-19 test to avoid quarantine.

Only tests from certified third-country laboratories will be accepted and their suitability will be checked by the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, and the National Health Laboratory. The list of recognised third-country laboratories will be published on the website of the National Health Laboratory.

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia

STA, 20 August 2020 - Slovenia recorded 43 new confirmed Sars-Cov-2 infections in 1,168 tests on Thursday, a figure that had last been seen on 3 April and means a new record for the second wave which has seen a steady rise in the last 10 days.

No Covid-19 patients died on Wednesday, which means the death total remains 129. Seventeen patients need hospital treatment, two are in intensive care.

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There have so far been 2,536 confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infections, with 313 active at present, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

The younger population continues to stand out among the cases discovered during the second wave. On Wednesday, 10 cases were in the 15-24 age group, 11 among 25 to 34-year-olds, seven among people aged 35-44, and four among 45-54-year-olds.

The figure for the 55-64 group was one, for 65-74 five, and for 75-84 three. One infection each was also confirmed for the above 85 group and for the 5-14 group.

The new cases were again dispersed around the country, involving 22 municipalities. Ljubljana had ten new cases and has 75 active cases presently.

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