STA, 22 July - Slovenia's Covid-19 death toll has increased to 115 after another fatality was reported for Tuesday, along with 29 new coronavirus infections, an 11-day high, fresh data from the government show.

The latest cases come from 1,150 tests for Sars-CoV-2 conducted yesterday. They bring the national total of cases so far confirmed to 2,006, of which 243 are active cases.

A total of 22 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, two of them in intensive care, after one patient was discharged yesterday and one intensive care patient died, a fatality for the fourth day running.

Tuesday's cases include three at the Hrastnik care home in central Slovenia, two among the residents and another staff member, the facility's director, Drago Kopušar, has told the STA.

There are now 20 of the 128 elderly residents and eight of the 75 staff infected at the care home. Nine of the infected residents have been moved to the Šempeter hospital in the west of the country.

Another hotspot in the Hrastnik municipality, which has a population of 9,000, is a housing estate Log nad Hrastnikom, where disinfection measures are being reimposed. Inspectors are also checking whether quarantine orders are being complied with. Hrastnik had 34 active cases as of Monday.

STA, 21 July 2020 - The newspaper Primorske Novice says that Slovenia's less-known tourist destinations are the winners of the tourism voucher scheme designed to help the sector overcome the coronacrisis. They are being discovered because the well-known destinations are fully booked weeks in advance.

Only 6% of the vouchers, issued to all residents, have been redeemed so far and many people will be redeeming theirs in autumn or winter.

But this moment, many Slovenians are hoping to book a holiday at a destination that was far from the top of their list because the most popular destinations are full, the paper says under the headline We'll Be Back, Voucher or Not.

It also notes that there are two sides to every coin. While tourists want a nice and cheap holiday, service providers in some popular destination have doubled prices.

But the sector has also come to realise that domestic guests are the most reliable in this unpredictable world. They will not be able to save the season single-handedly, but the vouchers will see Slovenians discover their own country and decide whether they want to return.

"Data showing that domestic tourists have spread also across destinations they would not have considered usually ... is undoubtedly a positive outcome of this experiment."

All our stories on Slovenia’s tourist vouchers

STA, 21 July 2020 - Slovenia recorded 24 new coronavirus infections from 914 tests on Monday, the highest daily increase since 10 July. One Covid-19 patient died, bringing the death toll to 114, fresh government data show.

There are currently 22 patients in hospital, up from 19 the day before, as two were discharged from hospital and five new patients were admitted. The number of patients in intensive care remained at three.

According to the national Covid-19 tracker site, there are now 238 active cases out of the total of 1,977 cases recorded since the state of the pandemic.

Most of the latest cases, six, were recorded in Hrastnik in central Slovenia, where an outbreak has been reported at a care home.

Monday was the third day in a row that a fatality was recorded. Before that there had been no confirmed Covid-19-related deaths for over a month and a half.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) warned today the bulk of the infections in recent days were locally transmitted, after an initial surge in imported cases that triggered the renewed rise in infections in late June and early July.

STA, 22 July - Slovenia's Covid-19 death toll has increased to 115 after another fatality was reported for Tuesday, along with 29 new coronavirus infections, an 11-day high, fresh data from the government show.

The latest cases come from 1,150 tests for Sars-CoV-2 conducted yesterday. They bring the national total of cases so far confirmed to 2,006, of which 243 are active cases.

A total of 22 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, two of them in intensive care, after one patient was discharged yesterday and one intensive care patient died, a fatality for the fourth day running.

Tuesday's cases include three at the Hrastnik care home in central Slovenia, two among the residents and another staff member, the facility's director, Drago Kopušar, has told the STA.

There are now 20 of the 128 elderly residents and eight of the 75 staff infected at the care home. Nine of the infected residents have been moved to the Šempeter hospital in the west of the country.

Another hotspot in the Hrastnik municipality, which has a population of 9,000, is a housing estate Log nad Hrastnikom, where disinfection measures are being reimposed. Inspectors are also checking whether quarantine orders are being complied with. Hrastnik had 34 active cases as of Monday.

Of the 104 confirmed cases last week, only two were imported.

Epidemiologist Nuška Čakš Jager told the press several hotspots were currently active, the virus having spread not only at retirement homes but also at parties, weddings and in several companies.

She said epidemiologists were still able to trace contacts of the newly infected persons but were close to reaching their limits.

Infections are now increasing among the older population yet again, making it more likely that the newly infected will require hospital treatment.

Infections disease specialist Mateja Logar of the UKC Ljubljana hospital said Slovenia was "far from having everything under control" given that the virus keeps spreading in municipalities that had been coronavirus-free in the first wave.

STA, 17 July - As of Friday Montenegro and Luxembourg are on Slovenia's red list of Covid-19 highly risky countries given their epidemiologic status. Croatia has meanwhile remained on the yellow list, which indicates a higher level of caution is advised, said the government on Thursday after a correspondence session.

Poland and the UK have been placed on Slovenia's green list of Covid-19 safe countries after the government was acquainted with a National Public Health Institute (NIJZ) report on the epidemiologic situations in member states, most notably Italian regions, Schengen area countries and Western Balkans countries.

Apart from Montenegro and Luxembourg, China, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Honduras, Israel, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, Colombia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Azerbaijan, Iraq, the Virgin Islands, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, Seychelles, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Eswatini and Suriname have been removed from the yellow list and moved to the red list.

A country is on the yellow list if it’s not on the red or green lists. You can see the most up-to-date lists on the police site, in English, here - noting that this story was pubished 17 July, 2020

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 certain cases.

As of Friday, Slovenia's list of Covid-19 safe countries has seen additions of Poland, Australia, Georgia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Uruguay, San Marino, Vatican City and Morocco (all previously on the yellow list).

Certain countries have acquired or retained their status as a Covid-19 safe country even though their epidemiologic situation has slightly exceeded 10 infections per 100,000 citizens in a 14-day incidence period. The exceptions have been granted because cases are trending upward only slightly, epidemiologic data is reliable and coronavirus imports from those countries into Slovenia have been rare or non-existent.

Therefore, Austria, Belgium, France, Spain and the Czech Republic remain on the green list, whereas Canada, Monaco (both previously on the yellow list), as well as Andorra and the UK (both previously on the red list) have been moved to the green list.

Meanwhile, Iceland has been removed from Slovenia's list of Covid-19 safe countries.

Interior Minister Aleš Hojs announced at today's government coronavirus briefing that Slovenia would introduce a new model for categorising countries according to the level of safety regarding coronavirus contagion.

The limit of 10 coronavirus cases per 100,000 citizens in the past fortnight will not be amended, however the new model will put more focus on determining the source countries of infections recorded in Slovenia and the distance between the country in question and Slovenia.

Hojs also presented changes to the border policy under which people ordered to quarantine could enter Slovenia at any border crossing with Croatia as of Monday. Police officers will be the ones serving the quarantine orders on the border and inland under the new decree.

The authorities are striving to ensure the orders are issued and served as soon as possible, said Hojs, adding that even if the order was potentially served at a later time, the individual had still been informed of the mandatory quarantine measure.

On Thursday, more than 300 quarantine orders were served on the border and only 22 inland, the minister said.

Follow all the news on coronavirus and Slovenia

STA, 16 July - In what upholds a relatively flat curve of new cases, 19 Sars-CoV-2 infections were confirmed in Slovenia in 1,032 tests conducted on Wednesday. The number of people in hospital rose by two to 18, with one patient in intensive care, show government data released on Thursday.

No new deaths due to Covid-1' were reported, meaning the death toll remains 111, while the total number of confirmed infections rose to 1,897.

The latest number of new cases matches Tuesday's, while ten infections were confirmed in Monday's testing after the previous two weeks also saw two spikes of 30 and 34 cases.

Meanwhile, four new infections were confirmed today in Hrastnik, which is being mentioned as a hotspot, having a total of 23 active infections, among them five elderly care home residents and five staff.

Hrastnik Mayor Marko Funkl told the STA that the four new cases detected today included a staff member and three residents of the elderly care home.

He added that a health inspector was in town today inspecting the situation at local pubs, the source of the outbreak that started last week.

Funkl also reiterated that the care home needed help from the government in ensuring sufficient health care staff. He said he was contacted by the Health Ministry about the issue today, but no help was promised as yet.

Meanwhile, Social Affairs Minister Janez Cigler Kralj told the press before the weekly government session that everything was going according to protocol at the Hrastnik elderly care home and that the home was in constant contact with the ministries of health and social affairs.

He also said that the government would provide aid in form of more staff to its best abilities.

Survey shows only 27% willing to use contact tracing app

STA, 16 July 2020 - Only about a quarter of Slovenians are willing to use a contact tracing mobile app designed to stop the spread of coronavirus, suggests a survey conducted on a sample of 566 persons between 10 and 13 July.

For the app to achieve its goal, it would have to be used by at least 50% to 60% of the population. However, only 10% of respondents told pollster Valicon that they would definitely install it to their devices, while 17% said they would likely do so.

While some 17% of the respondents said they were undecided, more than a half have said they are unlikely to install such an app or that they would definitely not install it.

The likelihood of installation is higher among those who are more cautious about their health, BUT most of the people in this group are also unlikely to use it.

The assessed likelihood of installation climbs to 58% in the case that the individual had contracted the virus or had been ordered to quarantine. Nevertheless, some 30% are unlikely to install the app even in this case.

More than a half of the respondents said they do not believe the app will be a success. Less than 25% believe it will have no effect, while a third said the app could not contribute sufficiently to stop the spread of the virus.

On the other hand, nearly two thirds believe that the app could have an effect, while only 4% said it could actually stop coronavirus.

The survey also indicates a low level of trust for the government's reassurances that the app would be anonymous and that it would not be tracing the user's whereabouts.

STA, 14 July 2020 - Foreign ministers from Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia, known as the Central5, held talks in Budapest on Tuesday focusing on the opening of borders with third countries in the light of the coronavirus epidemic.

The EU's recovery instrument, multi-annual budgetary framework and the role of state subsidies in investments and regional economic cooperation was also on the agenda, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said it made sense for Central European countries to coordinate their policies and help each other, noting that this was a region with strong historical, economic and human ties.

??, ??, ??, ?? in ?? Na povabilo madžarskega zunanjega ministra so se danes v Budimpešti srečali zunanji ministri skupine #Central5 ? pic.twitter.com/1r0aohzFpY

— SLOVENIAN MFA (@MZZRS) July 14, 2020

He stressed that strong cooperation was necessary to overcome the current health crisis, Austrian press agency APA reported.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Central European countries had successfully worked together to introduce protective measures against the virus, and they have decided to maintain their cooperation amid upsurges in several neighbouring countries, Hungarian press agency MTI reported.

The group of five countries decided to establish the Central5 format in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. The first meeting was held in Vienna on 16 June.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar invited his counterparts to a meeting in Slovenia. The tentative date is 15 September, the Foreign Ministry said.

STA, 13 July 2020 - The coronavirus contact tracing app, which Slovenia will develop using the German open source solution, will be voluntary for everyone, Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik announced on Monday. The government previously sought to make installing the app mandatory for those with confirmed infections and those sent into quarantine.

The statement comes after the ministry on Sunday released a call for applications for the localisation of the German app, which is already used by several million residents in Germany and in several other countries, and is based on technology developed jointly by US tech giants Google and Apple.

The German app uses Bluetooth technology and does not store location information, which is a major concern of privacy advocates. As Koritnik put it, "the only purpose of the application is to let people know whether they have been in contact with someone who has been infected".

Under the open call, the app must be ready for deployment by 1 August. The call is for what is called a "contract below threshold", which means the value of the deal may not exceed EUR 40,000.

The rules for such contracts stipulate that the contracting authority must get a minimum of three bids and select among them.

The open call triggered criticism in the app developer community due to the short deadline. Koritnik said the deadline was so short because the contract does not involve complex solutions while the government wants the app to be available as soon as possible.

Koritnik pointed out that Germany had spent millions developing the app, while Slovenia will be able to localise it for a fraction of the price. He also said Germany's data privacy laws were as strict if not stricter than Slovenia's.

The government will consult the Information Commissioner on the proposed specifications and any changes as needed.

The legal basis for the deployment of a contract tracing app was created with the latest package of anti-corona legislation, which the National Assembly passed on 9 July.

STA, 13 July 2020 - Slovenia's coronavirus case count has increased to 1,849 after eight of the 440 tests for Sars-CoV-2 came back positive on Sunday, fresh official statistics show. One patient is in intensive care, but there were no Covid-19 related fatalities recorded yesterday.

A total of 17 patients are hospitalised with Covid-19, one more than the day before. One patient was discharged yesterday.

Currently, there are 265 active cases in Slovenia, according to the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

Slovenia has not recorded Covid-19 related fatalities for a month and a half now. The death toll remains at 111.

HINA, July 11, 2020 – The Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli said on Friday evening that Slovenian tourists did not need to worry about their arrivals in Croatia, particularly in the coastal Adriatic area where the epidemiological situation was good.

Cappelli, who was in Croatia's delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for the talks with their Slovenian hosts in Otocec ob Krki on Friday, said that the meeting had also revolved around tourism-related issues against a backdrop of the epidemiological situation.

"During the meeting in Slovenia we emphasised the importance of Slovenian visitors for the Croatian tourism industry. Currently, there are 92,000 Slovenians vacationing here, and 70% of them are in three Adriatic counties: Istria, Promorje-Gorski Kotar and Zadar, which are labelled as green areas that is epidemiologically safe and favourable just as the remaining four coastal counties," the minister told Hina.

Slovenes Bought Most Properties in Croatia Since 2013, Followed by Germans, Austrians, Italians & Swedes

The minister said that most Slovenian guests were staying in camp-site facilities and reassured them that that they did not have to worry about self-isolation.

In the coming days, Croatian and Slovenian epidemiologists will give additional recommendations for monitoring trends in the tourist trade and other events between the two countries on a daily basis, he said.

Special attention will be paid to efforts to prevent the emerging of any new hotspots of the virus in connection with public and private gatherings.

"I urge all tourists to abide by the current and new measures from the Croatian COVID-19 crisis management team. This is the only way to ensure the tourist trade and other economic activities can go on this year," Cappelli concluded.

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 9 July 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Government communication on coronavirus “dumb”

STA, 10 July 2020 - The left-wing weekly Mladina is critical in Friday's editorial of the government's communication related to the coronavirus situation. Rather than presenting recommendations to the people as for example the German or Austrian government, the Slovenian government is being "rude, disrespectful and simply dumb", says editor-in-chief Grega Repovž.

Not only is the government blaming the people for the situation, making threats and patronising them, its communication is even becoming "extremely harmful".

According to Repovž, the main problem is government spokesperson Jelko Kacin.

His statements about Slovenians not understanding that 50 people means 50, not 50 plus another 50, is sending the message to the people that they are idiots and irresponsible.

"Anyone familiar with the basics of communication knows that such threats may be efficient for a (very) short time, but in the long run they lead only to the loss of credibility and authority of the person making them."

Repovž is particularly bothered by Kacin's statements about young people, describing them as "irresponsible and also a little bit dumb beings".

But the most disturbing according to Repovž was Kacin's statement about picnics he made on Tuesday, when he urged people not to invite "people from other cultural and national environments" to their picnics.

He says "such open xenophobia" should not be allowed.

"Wise governments are building bridges of trust with citizens nowadays, asking them, addressing them as partners, co-citizens, presenting them recommendations. Others have Jelko Kacin as the official spokesperson," Repovž says under the headline Main Pest.

Demokracija: Janša's letter to Šketa not controversial

STA, 9 July 2020 - The right-wing weekly Demokracija argues in its latest editorial that the letter that Prime Minister Janez Janša sent to State Prosecutor General Drago Šketa over the anti-government protests is in no way controversial. What is controversial is the investigation of Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, it says.

Elaborating on the claim about Šketa, editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says that one must distinguish between the justice system and judiciary.

"The justice system is a much broader notion, encompassing state prosecutions, lawyers and notaries; so next to judges also those performing duties related to court activities who definitely are not part of the judicial branch.

"The prosecution thus definitely falls under the executive branch of power, which means that it is autonomous but not independent (as for example justice) or untouchable."

It is clear who is in charge of the executive branch of power, so Janša's letter to Šketa in which he expressed criticism over the passivity of the prosecution in the face of inciting to violence during protests is no interference in the other branch of power but a warning of a superior to an inferior.

"With this letter Janša did not interfere with the prosecutors' independence or conduct political pressure," Biščak argues.

What is controversial, however, is the house searches that were conducted at Minister Počivalšek's home last week and him being placed in custody.

This clearly shows how alive the deep state is and that it is choosing no means in its efforts to bring down the government.

Počivalšek was suspected on misusing public funds in the procurement of protective equipment during the epidemic. But the public funds could not have been misused yet.

He was placed in custody due to the risk of flight but where could he possibly go, Biščak wonders. Another argument was that he might repeat the crime, but where is the guarantee that he will not repeat it after release.

And the third argument was that public broadcaster RTV Slovenija had reported about it. "RTV Slovenija as a key reference for an investigation, are you out of your mind?"

All this can mean only one thing: that the National Bureau of Investigation and the prosecution in cooperation with investigating judge Mojca Kocjančič (former wife of Aleš Zalar and the judge who saved Zoran Janković by excluding key evidence) have come up with a scheme that serves the interests of known political groups.

"Why Počivalšek was picked to be the scapegoat was even publicly stated in the 'official gazette' of the deep state (Mladina): because he is the weakest link on the way to the SDS and Janez Janša. It is hard to imagine a clearer laying out of the principle 'first discrediting then liquidating'", Biščak says under Dear Prosecutors, Are You Serious.

All our posts in this series are here

STA, 10 July - A preliminary follow-up report on the April nationwide antibody study, which originally estimated 2-4% or one in thirty Slovenians had probably been exposed to the novel coronavirus, has downgraded the estimate to 0-2.8%.

The report was presented on Friday by Mario Poljak, a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, which led the study.

Poljak explained that the first estimate, presented on 6 May, had presumed a too high reliability of antibody tests and that the revised figures, based on new discoveries, are likely to be further fine-tuned in future follow-up reports, the final one being expected in November.

The researcher stressed that the antibody part of the study, executed with serological tests, had been far less relevant than the segment establishing only two positive Sars-CoV-2 cases in a representative sample of 1,368.

While explaining that the reliability estimate for the swab tests remained unchanged, Poljak argued this had been the figure that allowed the authorities to start easing restrictions.

Also important will be the follow-up findings based on reports being collected from all the participants of the study every three weeks to monitor their health condition and that of their remaining household members.

Slovenia records 17 new coronavirus infections on Thursday

STA, 10 July 2020 - Seventeen out of 1,390 coronavirus tests came back positive on Thursday, a slight increase from 13 the day before, which was the lowest daily tally since 30 June. Sixteen people needed hospital treatment, one more than on Wednesday. None of the patients was in intensive care and nobody was released from hospital, government data show.

Nuška Čakš Jager of the National Institute for Public Health (NIJZ) told the press that the number of active cases in the country yesterday had been estimated at 236.

A slightly bigger increase in the number of cases was recorded in care homes but they all stem from known cases. The number of infections among medical staff has also risen.

The curve in Slovenia has been rising but daily fluctuations are being recorded, said Čakš Jager, noting that the daily count was around 20. The situation in Croatia is similar, but the rise is steeper there, she said.

In Slovenia, the number of active cases reached 11.34 per 100,000 people today, she said. Ten infections per 100,000 inhabitants has been the benchmark used by Slovenia to de-list countries as coronavirus safe. Nevertheless, Čakš Jager said the situation was under control.

Quarantine has been proposed by the NIJZ for 762 people who have been in close contact with infected persons. Twenty-five of these persons later tested positive.

Nine infections have been recorded among those who were ordered quarantine after entering Slovenia from a risky country.

The Health Inspectorate has carried out 1,876 inspections of the quarantine requirements since Saturday.

According to government spokesperson Jelko Kacin, 585 people were found to be respecting restrictions imposed on them, while 25 persons did not and will be punished. In nine cases, access to private property was not possible and in 30 cases wrong information was given to the authorities.

In 15 cases, nobody answered the door, and in 50 cases the inspectors were unable to find the right apartment in multi-apartment buildings.

Kacin said an increased oversight would also be conducted over bars and restaurants this weekend.

Among the 132 confirmed coronavirus cases in a week, 73 were linked to a local source. The number of infections from an unknown source also rose.

Among the imported cases, most came from Croatia, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.

So far, a total of 1,793 infections have been confirmed in Slovenia and 111 people have died of the Covid-19 disease.