STA, 14 December 2021 - Slovenia has joined the list of countries in which the highly infectious Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 has been confirmed, Prime Minister Janez Janša announced during questions time in parliament on Tuesday. He said a cluster of infections with the variant had been detected in Ljubljana.
Miroslav Petrovec, the head of the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, whose lab detected the variant, told the press that the Omicron variant had been found in four samples, all of them in Ljubljana.
The period in which the samples were taken is 29 November to 6 December. One person with Omicron had already had Covid last year.
"The discovery of Omicron could announce a new wave," Health Minister Janez Poklular said at today's press conference, also pointing to the fact that the declining trend in new daily cases is slowing down.
He thus reiterated the call for vaccination, saying that the vaccination campaign would intensify in the coming days, including with the support of local communities.
He also urged all medical staff to send a clear message to the people that vaccination is safe and efficient.
According to Marta Grgič Vitek, the national vaccination coordinator, citizens are invited to get a booster jab after six months although the Covid pass for the vaccinated will be valid for nine months.
So far 1,171,573 people or 56% of the entire population have been fully vaccinated. An additional 351,684 people have had their booster jabs.
1,712 New Cases of COVID as Declining Trend Slows
STA, 14 December 2021 - Slovenia confirmed 1,712 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, down by about a tenth on the week before, as the decline in daily caseload appears to be slowing down. A further 14 Covid-19 patients have died.
Over the last month daily cases were declining by 20%-30% on a weekly basis, but Monday marked the second day in a row that the case count dropped by only a tenth.
The PCR test positivity rate was 33.5%, broadly in line with trend, show data from the government and the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).
The 14-day incidence per 100,000 population was down by 37 to 1,013, whereas the rolling 7-day average of daily cases was down by 34 to 1,352.
The figures come from the highest number of daily rapid antigen tests performed to date, almost 97,000.
Government data show Covid-19 hospitalisations dropping by 57 from yesterday to 817 this morning, as ICU cases declined by one to 235.
With an additional 14 fatalities, the total death toll from Covid-19 has climbed to 5,820, show the Health Ministry's data after being adjusted with those of the NIJZ.
