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Two new fatalities bring coronavirus death toll to 45
Slovenia successful in tackling coronavirus but acute phase not over yet
Survey shows high level of trust in conventional media during epidemic
Large shipment of protective equipment delivered
Two new fatalities bring coronavirus death toll to 45
STA, 10 April 2020 - Slovenia recorded two more Covid-19 fatalities on Thursday, bringing the death toll of the coronavirus epidemic to 45. The number of infected persons rose by 36 to 1,160, show the latest government data released on Friday.
The number of Covid-19 patients who require hospitalisation dropped slightly to 106, of whom 36 were in intensive care, two more than on Wednesday.
Nine were discharged from hospital, for a total of 137 persons who no longer require hospital treatment.
Slovenia has so far performed over 33,000 covid-19 tests.
Slovenia successful in tackling coronavirus but acute phase not over yet
STA, 10 April 2020 - Bojana Beović, an infectious disease specialist, has told the weekly Mladina that Slovenia was yet to exit the acute phase of the coronavirus epidemic. However, the Italian scenario is very unlikely to unfold as hospitals have admitted much fewer Covid-19 patients than had been projected.
Beović, who heads the Health Ministry's medical task force for coronavirus, said that the effectiveness of the latest preventive measures would be clear after this weekend, and "only after that can we talk about an exit strategy."
Slovenia has "caught the last train in preventing an exponential growth of infections" and the number of severely ill patients in Slovenia will apparently not exceed the capacity of the country's healthcare system.
Beović also said at a press conference today that, considering that the daily number of new infections was dropping, the epidemic had probably reached its peak, but that more would be known after the Easter holidays.
She called on people to refrain from contacts for another week or two, noting that the epidemic wave ended only when an infected person passes the infection to under one person on average.
Beović proposed in the Mladina interview that, in the next phase, the younger population should be allowed to get infected under controlled conditions to gain herd immunity. But she stressed that it would be hard to contain the spread of the virus between generations.
"The risk of doing something like this is too high at the moment. It is true, though, that in the long run, while a vaccine is not yet available, such tactics should be chosen."
Beović was also asked about this at the press conference, saying that if a vaccine or effective medication was not available soon, this was the only option, which would actually be implemented once kindergartens and schools reopen.
Slovenia plans to shortly start examining the presence of antibodies which show that a person has recovered from the infection. But the epidemic needs to last longer for such research to produce quality results, and it would be good to also have a quality test for antibodies, Beović told Mladina.
As for the criticism in the public about the perceived excessiveness of the measures and pessimism of the government, she said that "it is better to stay on the side of caution" and that the trend should first turn downwards before one could speak about optimism.
Beović noted that there were no official guidelines for the treatment of Covid-19 because of the lack of reliable data, while there were some reports about successful application of blood plasma of persons who had developed antibodies.
She personally expects the most from the antiviral drug remdesivir. "If this does not prove to be effective, we can say that we will remain in the dark."
The epidemic has exposed care in nursing homes as the biggest shortcoming in the healthcare system, as these are equipped more like hotels, while what their residents need is something like a nursing hospital.
She also stressed that it was important to restart the healthcare system, "otherwise it will not be possible to eliminate all the backlog in examinations and surgeries in the foreseeable future."
Survey shows high level of trust in conventional media during epidemic
STA, 10 April 2020 - Slovenians mostly have no issues trusting conventional media, meaning TV, radio and printed media reports, during the coronavirus epidemic, shows a survey released on Friday by pollster Mediana.
More than half the respondents (51%) said they trust or fully trust TV reports, while 8% said they do not trust them at all. The shares for radio reports were 48% and 8% respectively, and for printed media 40% and 7%.
A lower level of trust was recorded for online news portals, which also had the highest share of undecided respondents. Trust or full trust was expressed by 25% and no trust at all by 30%.
There is even more scepticism towards social media, where the share of those fully trusting the reports was 4% and of those not trusting them at all 44%.
The survey was carried out between 3 and 5 April through online polling. It involved 703 respondents aged 15 to 75.
Large shipment of protective equipment delivered
STA, 10 April 2020 - More than twenty tonnes of protective equipment, including face masks for medical staff, was delivered from China to the Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport on Friday morning, one of the largest such shipments since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
The 1.1 million FFP2-type masks, which are crucial for frontline staff, along with almost 16,000 protective uniforms for doctors and 1.7 million gloves was delivered from Chengdu aboard an Airbus A330.
The equipment was ordered by the Agency for Commodity Reserves via Public Digital Infrastructure, a company owned by gaming millionaire Joc Pečečnik, and is part of a large, EUR 30 million-plus order the company has received.
Prime Minister Janez Janša, sharing photos from the airport on Twitter, said that "the holidays will be calmer" now.
Late in the evening, another seven tonnes of protective equipment will arrive at Ljubljana airport from Qingdao, China, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that this will be the first of several special transport flights organised by the Agency for Commodity Reserves.
The plane will bring more than 1.1 million of protective face masks and other types of protective equipment donated by Chinese cities twinned with Slovenian cities, Slovenian and Chinese companies, the Association of Chinese Businesses in Slovenia, the Chinese Olympic Committee, the Slovenian community in China and a number of individuals.
The Foreign Ministry thanked those involved for their donations, adding that the plane will also carry protective equipment Slovenia bought in China.
