Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

A schedule of all the main events involving Slovenia this week can be found here

This summary is provided by the STA:

Shops closed, public transportation suspended as of Monday

LJUBLJANA - The vast majority of retail establishments in Slovenia will close at midnight under a government decree. Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, post offices, petrol stations, news stands and stores selling agricultural products will remain open. The government is also suspending public transportation services and the school closure takes effect on Monday. Schools were originally expected to remain closed for two weeks but under a new decree the closure will be indefinite until the reasons for the closure persist. On Tuesday, air traffic will be suspended as well, but the details of that decree have not been revealed yet.

Foreign Ministry advises Slovenians against any travel

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry advised Slovenian citizens against any travel abroad due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, adding that special warnings were in force for Italy, Serbia, Spain, Iran, South Korea, the US and China. It also said on Twitter that Colombia had restricted flights from Europe, and that Bolivia had cancelled air links with Europe. The ministry thus advised against travel to Colombia and Bolivia as the status of trans-Atlantic flights is becoming unpredictable. Slovenians who are currently there should try to lave the countries as soon as possible.

Serbia closed for Slovenians, self-isolation required in Croatia

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry announced that Slovenian citizens were no longer allowed by Serbian authorities to enter the country as a measure to contain the spreading of the new coronavirus. Slovenians who want to enter Croatia meanwhile need to state an address in Croatia where they would stay in two-week isolation and be supervised by sanitary inspectors and epidemiologists, otherwise they would be rejected. The measure is also in place for Croatian daily migrants who work in Slovenia's Novo Mesto. If they show up for work in Slovenia on Monday, they would need to stay in two-week isolation upon re-entry to Croatia.

Number of confirmed coronavirus cases up to 219

LJUBLJANA - A total of 6,156 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Slovenia so far, with infection confirmed in 219 persons by 2pm on Sunday, the government said. The government also published statistics on the persons that have been confirmed as infected persons by 10am today (216 cases). The most of the infected belong to the 30-49 age group (73), followed by the 16-29 age group (45) and the 50-59 age group (41).

Sustainability in focus as Consumer Rights Day is marked

LJUBLJANA - As World Consumer Rights Day is marked today, putting sustainable consumption in focus, the Consumers' Association of Slovenia (ZPS) noted that consumers felt the consequences of climate change and increased health risks due to higher levels of gas emissions in the atmosphere. "A sustainable consumer is thus gaining in importance. What is needed for a transition to more sustainable consumption is change in the existing production and consumption patterns," the ZPS added. The Statistics Office meanwhile noted that households in Slovenia spent EUR 19,560 on average for basic necessities in 2018, or EUR 1,630 a month.

Man in Maribor dies as police intervene in domestic dispute

MARIBOR - A man from Maribor died on Saturday afternoon as the police intervened following a report of a domestic dispute involving the man and his father. The man resisted the police intervention by using his martial arts skills, injuring some of the officers. They had to use physical force, pepper spray and handcuffs in order to restrain the perpetrator. The perpetrator then lost consciousness and died on the spot despite medical assistance. The newspaper Večer said the person in question was a 28-year-old mixed martial artist previously known to the police. The incident is being investigated by the Specialised State Prosecution.

Visiting Ljubljana? Check out what's on this week, while all our stories on Slovenia, from newest to oldest, are here

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here

STA, 15 March 2020 - Slovenia has put in place sweeping new measures effective at midnight on Sunday to contain the coronavirus epidemic as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 219 and one person died. Most shops will be closed, public transportation will not operate and schools will be closed until further notice.

The vast majority of retail establishments will close, but grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, post offices, petrol stations, newsstands and stores selling agricultural products will remain open.

Within 24 hours the National Institute of Public health will also issue recommendations about limits to the number of customers that may be in a shop at a given time.

The decree does not come with a time limit, it will remain in place until it is revoked.

The government also decided to indefinitely extend the previous government's two-week decree ordering the closure of all educational institutions.

The ban is near-complete with few exemptions, for example for special educational institutions providing care for persons with mental disabilities.

Students living in dormitories who cannot return home will be allowed to stay, as will foreign students who cannot return to their countries, student families, and visiting professors living in student housing.

The original plan was to organise daycare for children whose parents work in critical industries, but that has been cancelled now as well.

A decree has been adopted banning any sort of organised care given that children can be very important vectors of coronavirus transmission.

Instead, Prime Minister Janez Janša and Education Minister Simona Kustec issued an urgent appeal to people to help each other with home care.

"I'm asking all healthy youths who have time to help. Currently the only safe form of daycare is home care," Janša wrote on Twitter.

Travel will also be severely affected as Slovenia shuts down air traffic, much like most European countries have done or are planning to do.

The ban will take effect on Tuesday, giving travellers some time to make arrangements to leave the country or get back home, according to Jelko Kacin, spokesman for the government's crisis management unit.

The authorities are now looking into possibilities to help individual citizens who may be stranded abroad.

But travel has been hampered anyway by bans countries have been introducing to protect their citizens.

The Foreign Ministry announced that Slovenian citizens were no longer allowed by Serbian authorities to enter the country. Croatia started to reject Slovenians who do not opt for two-week self-isolation at an address in Croatia.

The Foreign Ministry has issued a travel alert advising all citizens against any travel whatsoever, after issuing special travel warnings for Italy, Serbia, Spain, Iran, South Korea, the US and China.

"On 12 March Slovenia declared an epidemic based on an increasing number of infections with the coronavirus. Slovenian citizens are advised against any travel!" the ministry said.

All our stories on coronavirus are here – shop responsibly and look out for older neighbours

You might be stuck at home for a while, with some time on your clean hands as work slows down, most likely with some concerns about a decline in income and the general economic outlook. In which case why not add to your skillset, make yourself more employable, and ensure a more integrated and secure future in Slovenia, by finally learning the language, getting it a level where it's self-sustaining and you can just watch TV, listen to the radio and enjoy OnaPlus.

Of course, the best place to start is probably the most comprehensive guide to resources for learning the language, over at Wandering Helene. It covers books, websites, apps and more, and seems to be regularly updated. Keep that page bookmarked and explore the links as your abilities and interest arise. What we can offer at TSN is around 120 dual texts, in relatively simple Slovene and with an English translation, to give you some support as you pick up words and phrases, useful chunks to apply to daily life. The texts come from Časoris - the award-winning online news website for children in Slovenia - and cover and all kinds of topics. We publish a new one every week, and you can find them here.

There's also a growing collection of videos, in Slovene with English subtitles, in our video section (here), and although you'll have to dig around to find those among the all-English ones you'll come across a lot of other Slovene-themed content that might be of interest.

STA, 15 March 2020 - The Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Sunday that Slovenian citizens were no longer allowed by Serbian authorities to enter the country as a measure to contain the spreading of the new coronavirus. It had also been unofficially reported that the measure was implemented by Croatia, which was later denied by the Croatian authorities.

The Serbian authorities announced the measure on the government website. As an additional measure to contain the outbreak, a temporary ban has been issued for foreigners coming from Slovenia, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece and Switzerland.

The ministry said in a tweet that "Serbia no longer allows Slovenian citizens to enter Serbia. The temporary ban also applies to citizens of other countries where epidemic has been declared."

In another tweet, the ministry said that "according to the information we possess, Croatia is denying entry to Slovenian citizens." It added that Slovenian citizens who have residence in Croatia would be subject to two-week self-isolation upon entry to the country.

The ministry explained for the STA that the information had been received from the Slovenian police and the Slovenian ambassador in Croatia. It added that this was not official information.

Later in the day, the ministry tweeted that "according to the information from the Croatian authorities, a ban on entry of Slovenian citizens to Croatia is not in force."

All our stories on coronavirus are here

STA, 14 March 2020 - The government will gradually increase reserves of essential food commodities for emergency supply of the population during the coronavirus outbreak and is putting forward an emergency bill to intervene in agricultural markets.

The Slovenian food industry is being affected by market disruption and instability due to obstacles to the free movement of goods and services, capital and persons in the single EU market and third countries.

Presenting the measures in response to the situation on Saturday, Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec said that the situation was being monitored and responded to in accordance with disruption in food supplies.

"Projections and predictions are also being made in case of disruption due to restrictions on transport of food across various borders," she said.

Regardless of the high level of self-sufficiency for milk, meat and dairy and meat products, the government tasked the Commodity Reserves Institute to gradually increase reserves of UHT milk, milk powder, cheese, poultry and beef.

The government has also adopted a bill on emergency measures in the market of agricultural produce, food, livestock and poultry markets and wood, submitting it to parliament for passage in an emergency procedure.

"The idea is to create the possibility to place restrictions on trade in agricultural produce, food products and livestock and poultry to ensure sufficient food supplies in the country," said the minister.

The act would allow the minister, in consent with the economy minister, to impose restrictions or bans on exports or imports of individual products or groups of products to or from other countries.

The act would also give the minister the power to cap prices of certain foodstuffs.

On the proposal of mayors, the Agriculture Ministry would also be able to appoint interim administrator of a farm if the farmers or employees on the farm were unable to work due to the effects of coronavirus.

The bill moreover provides for creation of temporary storage facilities in case of a surplus of goods due to disruption in exports in existing warehouses.

The minister would also get the power to impose restrictions and bans on imports of wood, wood chips and pellets from other countries, a measure to that Pivec said was meant to prevent import of coronavirus infections.

Army erecting field hospital in Ljubljana to serve as isolation centre

STA, 14 March 2020 - The Slovenian army started preparations Saturday to erect a field hospital at the Edvard Peperko Barracks on the outskirts of Ljubljana. In the event hospital wards are flooded with coronavirus patients, the unit would serve as an isolation centre for up to 120 people.

 Brigadier General Robert Glavaš, the acting chief of the general staff, said the army's main field hospital, Role 2, would be relocated from Maribor and erected in Ljubljana within about three days. He expects the job to be completed and the isolation unit operational by Tuesday morning at the latest.

Defence Minister Matej Tonin said the government's crisis response task force had decided to activate the army with the aim of securing additional capacities in the event they are needed. The isolation unit would be able to accommodate 40 patients with severe symptoms and 80 with milder symptoms.

"If it turns out that these mobile units are inadequate, we're considering repurposing the gym at this location to admit more patients," he said.

Slovenia had 181 confirmed cases of coronavirus by 2pm on Saturday. The government has decided to now shift the focus from detecting infections to providing for the most severe cases, which are expected to jump significantly within about a week given the current infection trends.

All our stories on coronavirus are here

STA, 14 March 2020 - The situation on Slovenia's borders with Italy and Croatia remains complicated as different countries have opted for different levels of border checks to contain the coronavirus epidemic. There are long lines of lorries in particular on the border with Croatia, but the authorities say they are working to address the situation.

Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec visited Gruškovje, one of the biggest crossings on the border with Croatia, Saturday afternoon to say that talks were under way with neighbouring countries.

"Goods are trapped on motorways, which is not good... We're in regular contact with ministers from neighbouring countries to resolve the situation. We're making various proposals, in particular to ensure uninterrupted supply and that the trapped lorry drivers could cross Slovenia faster," he said.

Many lorry drivers, in particular Romanian nationals, have been stuck in Slovenia because of restrictions imposed by Croatia and Hungary. At the same time, transit through Slovenia has been heavily affected due to restrictions that Slovenia adopted.

Vrtovec said that whatever the solution is, it must not cause new coronavirus infections. It must also apply to the entire transit route through Slovenia.

At Gruškovje the line of lorries waiting to cross into Croatia was nine kilometres long late in the afternoon. At Obrežje, another major crossing further south, the line was four kilometres long.

But cargo is not the only portion of traffic affected. Slovenia's restrictions on the border with Italy have left 95 Eastern European passengers stuck on two Ukrainian buses in the zone between the Slovenian and Italian border at the Fernetiči crossing since Friday morning.

The buses were allowed through the Italian checkpoint but were turned back at the Slovenian border, reportedly out of fear that they would be stuck in Slovenia. Italian authorities however refused to let them enter Italy and now they are stuck.

The local civil protection service from Sežana provided food and water last night and today. With the help of the Foreign Ministry it has been agreed that they will be escorted by police to a crossing with Croatia, where Croatian police will take over and see them through to Serbia.

Live updates from the Slovenian traffic service can be found here

Humanitarian convoy organised through Slovenia

STA, 14 March 2020 - Slovenian authorities have organised a humanitarian convoy to get lorries and passenger stranded in Slovenia due to border checks to their destination countries, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday evening.

The convoy of lorries and buses got under way in the evening accompanied by police and vehicles of the national motorway company DARS.

Transit to their destination countries will be supervised and there will be no stop in the transit countries, the ministry said.

The convoy was organised in agreement with Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Two Ukrainian buses with 95 passengers which had been stuck in the zone between the Italian and Slovenian border on Fernetiči for almost two days are not part of the convoy, according to public broadcaster TV Slovenija.

The buses were sent to Padua and the passengers will be airlifted to their countries, the report said.

All our stories on Slovenia and coronavirus are here

Update - The government is suspending public transportation services in Slovenia to contain the spreading of the new coronavirus, with the measure coming into effect at midnight Sunday Taxis will still be able to operate, but drivers will have to sanitize their vehicles after every drive.

STA, 14 March 2020 - The government's crisis management unit agreed additional measures Saturday to slow the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. Public transportation will be suspended on Monday with bars and restaurant closures planned as well.

"Stopping public transportation is an emergency measure if we want to effectively contain the outbreak," Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec said about the blanket suspension of bus and rail traffic due to take effect on Monday.

Health Minister Tomaž Gantar announced a closure of bars and restaurants as well, though the specifics and the time frame have not been announced.

Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote on Twitter that "Slovenia will close or limit all non-urgent activities" and that measures would take effect once the competent ministries have prepared the requisite decrees.

The measures were discussed at a session of the extended government crisis management unit which featured top government and civil protection officials as well as the central bank and other institutions.

It was set up by the government at its maiden session last night to serve as the central body managing and coordinating the crisis response.

The coronavirus epidemic is seen as the biggest disruption to society since Slovenia fought for independence from Yugoslavia nearly thirty years ago, and it marks the return of a person who had been synonymous with crisis management at the time.

Jelko Kacin, long-time MP and until recently Slovenia's ambassador to NATO, was named tonight the official spokesman of the crisis management unit, performing a role he played during the independence war as information minister.

In that period, he and Janša provided daily briefings for the media, an era that Janša also recalled today during a press conference in the afternoon.

Bookmark this link for all our stories on COVID-19 and Slovenia

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA:

Slovenia records first coronavirus fatality as elderly man dies

LJUBLJANA - An elderly man died of coronavirus at UKC Ljubljana hospital in Ljubljana, the first covid-19 victim in Slovenia. The man is reported to have had multiple underlying conditions and been very ill prior to the infection. He had been infected in Metlika, where several residents of a nursing home contracted the disease from a doctor who became ill in Italy. Seven residents and five staff have tested positive for coronavirus, making Metlika one of the biggest hotspots of the disease in Slovenia.

Focus shifting from confirmed to severe covid-19 cases

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia is shifting the focus of efforts to fight the coronavirus epidemic from the number of confirmed cases to the number of serious cases. Announcing the change, Prime Minister Janez Janša said that this would allow the country to better plan and allocate resources. Persons with respiratory infections will be told to self-isolate for two weeks and will not be tested for coronavirus. Only if they need to be hospitalised will they be tested. The number of positive cases by 2pm rose to 181, including a person on a Turkish Airlines 1061 flight to Ljubljana on 10 March.

Cap on protective gear prices, dispensing of drugs

LJUBLJANA - The new government issued a decree that caps the highest prices of protective personal and medical equipment and agents used by the services dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The prices of products such as surgical masks, goggles, gloves, hazmat suits, sanitizers and ventilators over the next three months cannot increase beyond the highest retail prices as of 8am Saturday. A decree also stepped into force limiting dispensing of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The government also decreed that measures "stipulated in the contagious diseases act for plague or viral haemorrhagic fevers" be applied to fight the covid-19 epidemic.

Govt acting to secure emergency food supplies

LJUBLJANA - The government ordered the Commodity Reserves Institute to gradually increase reserves of milk, meat and dairy products for emergency supply of the population during the coronavirus outbreak. The government also put forward to parliament an emergency bill to intervene in agricultural markets, which would allow it to impose restrictions or bans on food and livestock imports and exports, and imports of wood and to cap food prices in response to disruption on the market.

Public transportation to be suspended Monday, bar ban planned

LJUBLJANA - The government's crisis management unit agreed additional measures to contain coronavirus, including a suspension of all public transportation starting on Monday. "Stopping public transportation is an urgent measure if we want to effectively contain the outbreak," Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec said. Health Minister Tomaž Gantar announced a closure of bars and restaurants without specifying when it may take effect. Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote on Twitter that "Slovenia will close or limit all non-urgent activities".

Foreign Ministry advises against all travel to Spain

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry issued a travel alert advising against all travel to Spain, the second major coronavirus hotspot in Europe after Italy. All Slovenians in Spain were advised to return home as soon as possible. The ministry again appealed on Slovenians to postpone non-essential travel aboard, advising in particular against travel to Italy, Iran, South Korea and China. As the US travel ban from Europe came into force, Slovenian citizens were urged to return home immediately.

Govt makes first replacements

LJUBLJANA - The Janez Janša government dismissed Police Commissioner Tatjana Bobnar and Chief of the General Staff Alenka Ermenc its maiden session, naming security expert Anton Travner and Ermenc's deputy Robert Glavaš as stand-ins until new naming full-fledged replacements. Andrej Osolnik was appointed director of the Defence Ministry's intelligence and security service OVS in place of Dejan Matijevič. The government also appointed new state secretaries, and replaced Kristina Plavšak Krajnc with SDS public relations officer Miro Petek as director of the Government Communication Office.

State budget implementation suspended

LJUBLJANA - The new government suspended the implementation of the state budget until a supplementary budget is drawn up in response to the coronavirus crisis. Spending rights of direct budgetary users to a combined EUR 400 million in unallocated rights were reduced by 30% to set aside funds for urgent measures to contain and tackle the coronavirus fallout. The need for a supplementary budget became obvious after the country's growth forecast for the year was halved to 1.5%.

MP Franc Trček leaves the Left

LJUBLJANA - Franc Trček, a high-profile MP for the Left, parted ways with the opposition party shortly after the National Assembly confirmed the Janez Janša cabinet on Friday. This was after fellow MPs accused him of effectively praising the new prime minister because in a brief statement he made during the session he noted that as co-chair of the parliamentary Health Committee he had cooperated well with the co-chairs from the ranks of the Democrats (SDS) and Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ).

AI leveraged to track coronavirus news

LJUBLJANA - The International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence taking shape in Slovenia has joined efforts to raise awareness about the coronavirus pandemic. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it developed a tool for the real-time monitoring of media reports. The tool, available at http://coronaviruswatch.ircai.org/ and powered by Event Registry, provides rolling coverage of news about coronavirus at the global level and for individual countries.

STA, 14 March 2020 - Slovenia's second largest city Maribor plans to close bars, restaurants and establishments such as hair salons and flower shops to slow the spread of coronavirus.

"We want Maribor and its surroundings to remain an area with a relatively slow spreading of the epidemic," Mayor Saša Arsenović said on Saturday.

All such establishments will be closed unless they can arrange contactless delivery and service of food, which could mean fast food stalls would be exempted.

Arsenović said shops should consider closing as well, except for petrol stations, pharmacies and grocery stores.

The mayor's order is expected to take effect on Sunday, when the detailed rules will be announced. The order may include fines for violators.

The move comes after Prime Minister Janez Janša has called on local communities to be proactive in curbing the epidemic, saying that people are still too careless and that additional restrictions may be imposed.

There are currently 13 confirmed coronavirus cases in Maribor area out of 181 confirmed cases nationwide.

Slovenia records first coronavirus fatality as elderly man dies

STA, 14 March 2020 - An elderly man died of coronavirus at UKC Ljubljana hospital in Ljubljana on Saturday, the first covid-19 victim in Slovenia, the STA has learnt from multiple sources.

The man is believed to have had multiple underlying conditions and been very ill prior to the infection. He had been infected in Metlika, where several residents of a nursing home contracted the disease from a doctor who became infected in Italy.

The doctor had been at work for three days before he became symptomatic, during which time he had been in contact with several nursing home residents and staff.

Seven residents and five staff have tested positive for coronavirus and Metlika and several more in the region, making Metlika one of the biggest hotspots of the disease in Slovenia.

Things seem to be moving into the new normal, so updates should so down, but if you want the latest on coronavirus and Slovenia then bookmark this link

Contents

181 cases

Shift in focus

Price caps on protective gear

Coronavirus on Turkish Airlines 1061 flight in Ljubljana on 10 March at 8:45am

Travellers advised to avoid Spain

Slovenia sees new steep increase in coronavirus cases as 181 infections confirmed

STA, 14 March 2020 - Slovenia had 181 confirmed coronavirus cases by 2pm on Saturday, up by 40 since Friday, as the number continues to rise sharply.

Regional data show 75 cases confirmed in the general Ljubljana area, 39 in Novo Mesto, 27 in Celje and 13 in Maribor, the government announced on Twitter.

The figures reflect the largest clusters of cases detected so far.

The largest single cluster, numbering 46, is in Ljubljana, and 26 have been infected in Šmarje pri Jelšah, a small community in eastern Slovenia where an outbreak was registered in a primary school.

Metlika has 25 cases associated with a doctor who came to work sick and infected multiple patients and health staff.

Slovenia shifting focus from confirmed to severe cases

STA, 14 March 2020 - Slovenia plans to shift the focus of efforts to fight the coronavirus epidemic from the number of confirmed cases to the number of serious cases, which will allow it to better plan and allocate resources, Prime Minister Janez Janša said on Saturday. The shift will change the way Slovenia reports statistics.

The number of confirmed cases is relative since it depends on the number of tests and how testing is conducted, whereas the number of serious cases who need hospital care affects how the system operates, he said.

But Janša nevertheless warned that the change in what will be considered the benchmark data, which will be used to calculate the number of infections, "does not alter the gravity of the outlook on the situation."

The shift in effect means that Slovenia will no longer report all confirmed cases, it will extrapolate the number of infections from the number of severe cases based on figures available in countries such as China and Italy.

The result will be a range of possible infections, around which work in the healthcare system will be organised, according to Bojana Beović, an infectious disease specialist.

She said Slovenia was at a point in the epidemic at which it is "impossible to determine all contacts infected persons have had or sources of infections," which is why it made sense to direct all the effort into treating persons with the most severe symptoms.

Consequently, persons with respiratory infections will be told to self-isolate for two weeks and will not be tested for coronavirus. Only if they need to be hospitalised will they be tested.

Govt caps protective gear prices, creates legal basis to fight COVID-19

STA, 14 March 2020 - The new government has issued a decree that caps the highest prices of protective personal and medical equipment and agents, and adopted a legal basis to step up measures to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

The decree affects protective and surgical masks, goggles, gloves, protective suits, sanitizers, ventilators, portable oxygen systems and contactless body temperature thermometers.

The prices of these products over the next three months are capped at the highest retail prices in the market at 8am on Saturday.

The government also issued a decision that measures "stipulated in the contagious diseases act for plague or viral haemorrhagic fevers" be applied to fight the COVID-19 epidemic as a novel disease.

The act provides for measures such as epidemic testing, quarantining, inoculation and disinfection.

Once provision provides for a quarantine as a measure to restrict the freedom of movement and impose mandatory health checks of healthy persons suspected to have been in contact with an infectious person.

A quarantine is decreed by the minister of health on the proposal of the National Institute of Public Health and is not appealable.

As the number of coronavirus cases kept rising the former government already declared an epidemic earlier in the week and ordered the closure of all educational institutions from Monday as well as banned public events and urged a scale-down of public life.

Quarantine or self-isolation has so far been ordered only for individuals infected or in contact with coronavirus patients.

The most recent official number available shows that 181 persons had tested positive for coronavirus until 2pm today.

A decree issued by the former Health Minister Aleš Šabeder stepped in force at 7pm on Friday limiting the amount of prescription drugs issued by pharmacies equal to a month's treatment per patient and over-the counter drugs to a packet per person.

Pharmacies that meet the requirements to produce official formula preparations have been ordered to produce sanitisers and disinfectants.

Coronavirus infection on Tuesday's Turkish Airlines flight to Ljubljana

STA, 14 March 2020 - The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has found that a person infected with the novel coronavirus arrived on a Turkish Airlines 1061 flight in Ljubljana on 10 March at 8:45am. Fellow passengers are urged so monitor their condition and to limit their contacts with other people.

"The passengers on that flight are urged to closely monitor their health condition and seek the advice of their doctor over the phone if feeling unwell, have signs of a respiratory infection or fever," the NIJZ said in an urgent appeal.

Even if they do not have any symptoms, the passengers are advised to follow the advice on hygienic measures and to limit their close contacts and reduce social contacts that could lead to them passing potential infection.

The NIJZ detected the infected passenger in looking for contacts of a COVID-19 patient.

Foreign Ministry advises against all travel to Spain

STA, 14 March 2020 - The Slovenian Foreign Ministry has issued a travel alert on Saturday advising against all travel to Spain as the number of coronavirus cases continues to surge. All Slovenians in Spain have been advised to return home as soon as possible.

Since some airlines have already cut off links with individual European countries, the ministry said that Slovenian citizens currently in Spain should monitor the situation and contact airlines about their journey.

Spain today reported an increase of over 1,500 confirmed cases on Friday raising its total to 5,753 cases, the second-highest number in Europe after Italy.

The ministry again appealed on all Slovenians planning any travel abroad to reconsider their plans and postpone non-essential travel.

The ministry is advising in particular against travel to Italy, Iran, South Korea and China.

As US Donald Trump's travel ban from Europe to the United States has come into force, the Foreign Ministry advised all Slovenian citizens temporarily in the US to immediately return to Slovenia.

They are also being advised to follow the media and the local authorities' instructions, and to brace for potential delays.

Bookmark this link and keep up to date with all the latest on coronavirus and Slovenia