STA, 9 June 2021 - Non-EU students who want to study in Slovenia must prove they have EUR 5,000 per academic year available to obtain a temporary residence permit under the recent changes to the foreigners' act. This has upset students and universities, while the government says only the manner in which students prove they have sufficient means has changed.

Before the latest changes kicked in on 27 May, foreign students had to produce a written statement by their parents or legal guardians that they will support them during their studies in Slovenia.

Now a non-EU student has to prove in advance they have EUR 5,000 or EUR 402 per month (minimum monthly income) before applying for a temporary residency permit.

Foreign students, student representatives and universities see the new requirement as stricter than it used to be, arguing it could hurt Slovenia's higher education space.

They are also not sure whether the new rule also apply to non-EU students who are already studying in Slovenia, so they have asked the interior and education ministries for explanation.

The Interior Ministry said today the changes to the foreigners act, passed in March, only change the manner in which students must prove that they have enough funds.

The changes transpose the EU directive which says a foreign citizen must prove in a procedure to have enough funds to live on in order not to eat into the host country's social security system, the ministry said.

A foreign student will still be able to prove to have enough means with the income of their parents, but the body processing their request will not check if the parents have the means to support the whole family, only if they have the minimum monthly income of EUR 402 to support the student.

The Slovenian Student Organisation (ŠOS) announced on 28 May efforts to change the new rules, arguing they were not in line with the country's strategy on the internationalisation of higher education.

ŠOS promotes the right to studies for Slovenians and foreigners "to attract the best students who will improve Slovenian higher education and hopefully the labour market".

ŠOS president Andrej Pirjevec said that foreign students were no less able to take care of their social security than their Slovenian peers.

The chancellors of public universities meanwhile suggested on Monday that different interpretation should apply to those who have already enrolled.

The Education Ministry has told the STA that Italy and Austria have similar financial arrangements for non-EU students.

It also said it was in "intensive talks" with the Interior Ministry to make sure a scholarship counts towards the means a student has to support themselves.

There are 71,960 students studying at Slovenia's higher education establishments in the 2020/21 academic year. Over 7,680 of them are from abroad, of whom 5,527 from non-EU countries.

STA, 8 June 2021 - The results of a survey by Legebitra, an advocacy group for LGBTI rights, have shown that schools are not safe spaces for members of the LGBT community. One in four LGBT students reported of having often heard homophobic remarks at school, and in more than half of the cases, school staff did not intervene.

In a study entitled LGBT Youth - Breaking the Silence in Schools, which was conducted in 2019, Slovenian LGBT students presented their experiences of discrimination at schools. The results showed that 11% of LGBT students did not intend to complete their secondary education.

According to the study, students who have often been targets of attacks and remarks because of their sexual orientation are less likely to continue their education. One in four surveyed LGBT students reported often hearing homophobic remarks at school.

Only 13% of respondents said that school staff always or almost always intervened when homophobic remarks were made, 54% of them reported that school staff never intervened, and 33% of students observed school staff intervening occasionally.

Meanwhile, 41% of LGBT students felt that school staff responses to reports of harassment or assault were ineffective. Only around 11% of students felt that school staff responded to reports of harassment or assault very effectively, while 48% of students felt that their intervention was somewhat effective.

Legebitra also warned in a press release that homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and sexist language and other prejudice-based remarks create an unsafe school environment that can lead to LGBT people not fulfilling their potential.

The study involved 602 people aged 16-21. The average age of the participants, who came from all regions of Slovenia, was 17.4 years.

STA, 8 June 2021 - Alpelisib, the first and only targeted therapy for a specific type of advanced breast cancer is now accessible to patients in Slovenia, making it one of the few countries where this drug is available. The Institute of Oncology already started treating patients in the compassionate use programme before the drug was registered.

The European Commission approved the drug called Alpelisib in July 2020, following a positive opinion given by the European Medicines Agency in May 2020. The active ingredient for this medicine is manufactured at Novartis Technical Operations in Mengeš, Slovenia.

According to Novartis, Alpelisib is the first and only drug specifically approved for people with advanced breast cancer whose tumours contain the PIK3CA mutation, which promotes tumour growth and is associated with poor response to treatment.

At the Institute of Oncology in Ljubljana, 25 patients are being treated within the compassionate use programme, where the manufacturer makes medicines available free of charge, Radio Slovenia reported.

Alpelisib is an expensive drug, as monthly treatments cost between EUR 3,000 and EUR 4,000, with an average treatment time of one year.

According to Novartis, knowing the PIK3CA mutation status allows doctors to tailor a personalised treatment plan for patients. Those with advanced breast cancer may be selected for treatment with Alpelisib based on the presence of a PIK3CA mutation in tumour samples.

STA, 7 June 2021 - The government's Covid-19 advisory group does not intend to propose any substantial changes regarding Covid restrictions this week. Mateja Logar, the head of the group, said on Monday that a complete relaxation of measures could be put forward when Slovenia is in tier green according to the EU's traffic light system.

The latest covid data for Slovenia

STA, 7 June 2021 - Several restrictions introduced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have been loosed as of today, including in the events industry, accommodation, shopping and construction works.

The events industry is still limited to staff and visitors who have been vaccinated against, recovered from Covid-10 or tested, but the venues can now be filled up to 75% of fixed seats, up from 50% so far.

In open-air venues with no fixed seats, chairs must be at least one metre one from another, while the 1.5-metre distance still applies to those who stand, except for members of the same household.

Accommodation facilities with up to 60 units can offer up to 45 units, while those larger than 60 units, including camp sites, can be filled up to 75% of their capacity.

Swimming pools are now open to all guests who have been vaccinated, tested or recovered, with staff also having to meet these criteria, but still with a 75% capacity cap.

The ban on serving and consuming food and drinks at take-away points has also been lifted, while shops must now allow only 10 square metres per customer, down from 20.

STA, 3 June 2021 - The government changed on Thursday the decrees limiting attendance at public sport and cultural events to increase the permitted number of viewers from 50% to 75% of the number of fixed seats at a venue.

The relaxed attendance cap applies both to indoor and outdoor venues, the Government Communication Office said.

Rapid Antigen Test Now Enables Entry to Slovenia, Some Restrictions to Service Sector Relaxed

All other conditions and limitations related to public cultural events remain unchanged.

Events cannot be organised without seats, and attendance is permitted only to persons who have been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-10 and to persons who produce a negative test.

The ban on serving and consumption of food and drinks at events remains in force.

STA, 31 May 2021 - The head of the national advisory group for Covid-19 vaccination, Bojana Beović, has said that following the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 or more, the group will recommend vaccinating children, especially children suffering from chronic diseases. 

The vaccination advisory group will meet this week to adopt recommendations for vaccination of children, Beović said at Monday's coronavirus news conference.

The infectologist said that she could see no reason not to use Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine for children after it was approved by the EMA.

The vaccine had earlier been already approved for children aged at least 16.

Beović believes it makes sense to immunise them as Covid can also prove to be rather serious in children, while following the disease, they can suffer from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).

Another reason to vaccinate them is to provide for collective immunity to contain the epidemic, she added.

Children could already get registered for vaccination on the eZvem portal as part of the general population, she said.

Looking at the summer months ahead, Beović said normal life without coronavirus restrictions could be possible once herd immunity had been achieved.

Current age breakdown of those with one or two vaccinations: www.cepimose.si

For the Wuhan strain of the coronavirus, this means 66% of the population, while more virulent strains require higher rates.

If immunity rates are lower, restrictions will have to remain in place, she said.

Beović warned the epidemic was still quite widely spread in Slovenia, noting that the country had many more infections per number of residents than Austria or Italy.

From this aspect, she expects the restrictions to have to be in place for quite some time.

STA, 31 May 2021 - The Celje vaccination centre has invited all adults to get a Covid-19 jab without prior appointment in a move that has already been hailed in the efforts to push up Slovenia's vaccination rates.

The vaccination centre, operated by the Celje Community Health Centre, has offered slots on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for those wishing to get a Covid-19 vaccine without prior appointment.

On Tuesday, they will be able to get the single-dose Johnson & Johnson jab, on Wednesday the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and on Thursday the Moderna vaccine.

This was after last Tuesday, no prior appointment was needed to get the AstraZeneca jab at the Celje vaccination centre, located in Golovec sports arena.

Roman Jerala, a synthetic biology expert at the National Institute of Chemistry who has been involved in the efforts to develop a Slovenian Covid-19 vaccine, hailed the decision to offer the AstraZeneca vaccine without prior appointment as a welcome move in an interview aired by TV Slovenija on the main evening news on Sunday, in particular in light of concerns about the vaccine's safety.

Data from the National Institute of Public Health show that 661,138 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 402,685 have been fully vaccinated, which represents 31.5% and 19.2% of Slovenia's population, respectively.

STA, 28 May 2021 - More than one million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Slovenia as 653,310 people have received a first shot and 381,619 have been fully inoculated, which includes over 19,000 who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson jab, data from the National Institute of Public Health show.

The figures, available on the cepimo.se portal, mean that just over 31% of Slovenia's entire population has received at least one dose, and just over 18% has been fully vaccinated.

A total of 1,119,480 vaccine doses have been delivered to the country, and 1,015,611 doses have been administered. Over 680,000 of those were shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

Osilnica in the south of the country is the municipality with the highest vaccination rate as more than half of the residents there (51%) have received the first dose and 28% have been fully inoculated.

Meanwhile, only 18% of the population of Juršinci in the north-east got the first shot, while the lowest rate for full vaccination is at Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici and Kuzma, at 9.4% and 9.5% respectively, also in the north-east.

In terms of the first dose vaccinations, the most successful of Slovenia's 12 statistical regions is Zasavje in central Slovenia (34.5%), and Koroška in the north has the largest share of fully vaccinated population (20.3%).

The vaccination rate is the highest in people aged between 70 and 89. More women than men have been inoculated.

Data from the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org show most doses in a single day were administered on 20 May when nearly 30,500 people were vaccinated.

Lots of figures on vaccination in Slovenia, in Slovene but also visualised

STA, 26 May 2021 - Slovenia formally remains in tier yellow of coronavirus restrictions, despite meeting the conditions for the green tier, where most restrictions would be lifted. The current regime will remain in place until 6 June, save for some changes to rules governing the convention industry, the government decided on Wednesday.

Jump to changes at the border…

The Health Ministry's advisory group on Covid-19 led by Mateja Logar, proposed the government not to ease any more measures yet despite the fact that the rolling seven-day average of new cases dropped below 300 on Tuesday, which is a condition for moving to the green tier.

"Given that we are still in the state of epidemic it would be a bit illogical to lift all restrictions," Logar told the STA before the government session.

She said the ministries had been tasked with presenting proposals for easing restrictions while the country is still in the epidemic and afterwards. They are to be discussed by the Covid-19 group on Monday.

National coordinator of the Covid-19 vaccination logistics Jelko Kacin told the press earlier today that there had been some last weekend where many people had gathered and that experts were monitoring the consequences of these events in the regions where they had taken place.

When the incubation period expires for the attendants next week, it will be possible to assess whether new local outbreaks of infections can be expected and how massive they could be, he said.

Kacin did not specify which events may be problematic, but there was significant merry-making in Murska Sobota after the local football club won the first title of national champion.

He said they were still very concerned about what lifting of restrictions in sports could cause.

The plan at the moment seems to be gradual lifting of restrictions. "We will not miss out on anything if we keep the current regime for another weekend," he said.

The government also slightly amended the rules for convention industry, which was allowed to resume on 21 May under the condition that employees are either tested, vaccinated or reconvalescent, and visitors move only in one direction.

While initially the number of persons was limited to one person per 10 square metres, now the number of persons in closed public spaces or open air venues with fixed seats will be restricted to 50% of seating capacity with one seat empty between visitors.

In open-air venues with no fixed seats, the seats will have to be placed one metre apart. In open-air venues with no seats, visitors will have to keep a distance of at least 1.5 metres.

Slight easing of border restrictions, new red list of countries confirmed

STA, 26 May 2021 - The government has amended the decree governing coronavirus restrictions on borders. Effective on 30 May, accompanied children under 15 will not need to have a Covid certificate and the red list of countries will be split to lower- and higher-risk countries, designated as light and dark red.

Children under 15 who cross the border in groups accompanied by teachers or custodians, or who travel with family members who are not required to quarantine, will not have to produce a negative test to avoid quarantine.

Covid certificates from Serbia will be recognised, after the move had been announced by both countries' foreign ministers yesterday.

Since early May, Slovenia also recognises negative PCR tests done in Serbia as well as in all EU and Schengen zone members, Australia, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, the UK, and the US. At airports tests from Turkey are recognised as well.

Covid certificates proving that the passenger has had Covid-19 in the past six months are also recognised from all these countries.

The red list of high-risk countries has been split into light red and dark red.

Countries are placed on the dark red list when the 14-day incidence per 100,000 population exceeds 500, there is increased risk of more virulent Covid-19 variants, or when the number of weekly tests they perform is below 300 per 100,000 population.

Among EU and Schengen zone countries, the dark red lists contains only individual administrative units of France, Croatia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Sweden, plus 38 third countries.

For the light red list, the thresholds are a 14-day incidence of 50-100 and the test positivity rate of 4% or higher, or when the 14-day incidence is 150-500 cases.

The remaining EU and Schengen zone members plus 86 third countries are on the light red list.

It was not immediately clear from the press release after the government session whether the entry requirements for light red and dark red countries will be different.

The news portal 24ur reports they will be the same, adding that the new dark red list was introduced for the sake of having a single standard at the EU level.

More details on the red list and crossing the border in general, from the official government site (in English)