STA, 17 November 2021 - Primary and secondary school children who have not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid will be required to self-test in school three times a week starting from Wednesday in what the authorities say is an urgent measure in order to keep schools open amid a severe outbreak of the disease in the country.

The children and youths who will not self-test will be required to switch to remote schooling. If they come to school without consent forms signed by their parents, the schools have been instructed to call the parents to come and pick them up, and to notify social services.

Self-testing on school premises is mandatory for all school children, except for those with special needs, who will self-test at home. This is despite a last-ditch attempt by headteachers and the teachers' union to allow the youngest children to self-test at home as a transitional measure.

The call came amid severe opposition by some parents who have threatened schools to take legal action. A form threatening a reprimand and a criminal complaint against teachers over self-testing has been circulating on social networks.

Commenting on that, Branimir Štrukelj, the head of the SVIZ trade union, said that the Education Ministry had assured them the teachers would have their legal protection paid for. The union too would provide legal protection for its members should they face lawsuits.

If due to massive objections to self-testing a school should find itself in a position where it could not organise classes in person, the ministry has instructed for head teachers to propose for the whole school to switch to distance learning.

Responding to calls for children up to the age of 11 to be allowed to self-test at home, Health Minister Janez Poklukar and Education Minister Simona Kustec said the measure was absolutely required in order to keep schools open.

"We have two groups of the infected peaking. One is the 5 to 15-year-olds and the other is those between 24 and 45 years of age. Most infections happen in the family; between school children and parents the virus is spreading unchecked. We need to stop this to be able to cope with the situation in healthcare," said Poklukar.

The children who test positive will need to self isolate until they get back their PCR test results. Until then their classmates will continue with classes in person. Only if the PCR result is positive they will be ordered to quarantine as well.

Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković, who was among those supporting the call for the youngest pupils to be allowed to self-test at home, has said that a PCR testing point will be organised at Stožice sports complex for all students of Ljubljana primary and secondary schools who get a positive self-test.

STA, 16 November 2021 - A hospital official has announced that Slovenian hospitals will get help from neighbouring countries to cope with a surge of Covid-19 patients, asserting that an agreement has apparently been reached with Italy. However, the Health Ministry said that no conclusive agreement had been reached yet.

"The information has come today that heath staff from neighbouring countries will come to [Slovenia's] aid," said Dunja Savnik Winkler, the medical director of the Šempeter hospital, on the border with Italy, on Tuesday.

"An agreement is said to be already in place with Italy for five internal medicine consultants and ten nurses. We would like to make it possible for all Slovenian Covid patients to be treated in their home country," Savnik Winkler said.

However, the Health Ministry said that talks on aid in the form of staff with countries in the vicinity were still ongoing. "At the moment no conclusive agreement has yet been officially concluded," it said.

Savnik Winkler earlier explained that it was "almost easier to get staff from abroad than organising transport for critically ill patients to foreign countries".

The Šempeter hospital does not yet face a situation that could be compared to that in Bergamo at the peak of the Covid-19 emergency in Italy last year, she said.

However, she said the workload on the staff at the hospital was about one third bigger than usual at this time of year. The paediatric department is full all the time due to the many respiratory diseases.

The hospital currently treats 42 Covid patients at the regular ward and seven in intensive care, including one child. By Wednesday or Thursday the hospital will increase its ICU capacity from 12 to 15 beds.

Country-wide a total of 236 Covid-19 patients were treated in intensive care this morning, out of a total of 1,074 hospitalised.

Health Minister Boštjan Poklukar announced that hospitals had 288 ICU beds ready in what was the maximum planned intensive care capacity for Covid-19 patients.

The Slovenian Armed Forces have deployed four medical teams featuring a total of 20 members to help hospitals cope with the influx of patients.

All the lastest data on covid and Slovenia

STA, 16 November 2021 - Danijel Bešič Loredan, the head of the Nova Gorica general hospital's orthopedic ward, has received an extraordinary termination due to his opposition to moving patients from his ward to expand the hospital's capacities for Covid-19 patients.

Confirming the news for the STA on Tuesday, he said the management had closed the ward three times in two years, while there had been no talks in the summer on what to do with Covid patients if the situation should deteriorate to the point where the country is now.

"I insisted it's not possible to close the ward if we want to treat patients who need 'urgent' or 'very fast' treatment," said Bešič Loredan, accusing the management of playing "a dirty game that is not necessary in this situation".

He finds it unacceptable that there are 60 or more empty beds at the hospital's new building that could be used for Covid patients if the hospital had taken a different organisational approach. He believes this means that with the same number of staff, other programmes could also be carried out at 30% capacity.

He hopes the new director, who was recently appointed by the hospital's council, will be endorsed by the government as soon as possible to put the regional hospital at the level it deserves and to take care of patients.

Bešič Loredan intends to prove in court that his extraordinary termination of employment was unlawful.

The hospital's acting director Ernest Gortan said he was "forced to initiate certain legal proceedings against" the doctor over his opposition to the Covid reorganisation plans.

"We have merged surgery wards [...] All heads complied with the decision except the orthopaedic ward head Bešič Loredan. He was opposed arguing the conditions in the main building were not safe enough for patients," Gortan said.

The director then ordered for the patients to be moved to the Valdoltra orthopaedic hospital, but the doctor again failed to comply thus "jeopardising the hospital's ability to efficiently cope with the Covid epidemic".

The doctor has been banned from work at the hospital and is awaiting an interview. He was first issued a written warning and then a violation warning with an invitation for an interview.

An attempt was made to hand him the warning at the hospital, but as he failed to come into work that day without excusing himself, the paperwork was to be handed to him at his home address.

The hospital's medical director Dunja Savnik Winkler said that Bešič Loredan was not fully employed at the hospital; since summer he had only worked 60% of the full time at his own request.

Earlier she said the orthopaedic ward had been moved to another floor where there are several other wards, while some of the staff had been assigned to the Covid ward.

STA, 15 November 2021 - The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) and representatives of the medical profession made a renewed call for vaccination on Monday as the country is struggling to increase Covid bed capacities amid a severe fourth wave of the coronavirus epidemic. A similar call was made by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS). 

SAZU holds the situation is so severe that it calls for immediate action by all residents in order to prevent a health catastrophe and many new, unnecessary fatalities.

The academicians thus call on all people to protect their own lives and the lives of others by complying with all the preventive measures.

They moreover call on those who have not yet been vaccinated to do so, while recommending those vaccinated getting a booster shot.

The vaccines are effective, rarely cause severe side effects, while a vaccinated person is ten times less likely to have a severe form of Covid-19, the appeal reads.

Outlining it at a news conference in Ljubljana on Monday, SAZU president Peter Štih said, "We're all aware of the seriousness of the situation."

Health Minister Janez Poklukar stressed vaccination was the only exit "from the unbearable situation in which the Slovenian healthcare has found itself".

Making a case for science, he said it is the core of our civilisation while rejecting it takes us back to the Stone Age.

Immunologist Alojz Ihan provided some figures - if everyone in Slovenia was vaccinated, there would be 200 Covid patients in hospital, and if nobody was vaccinated, there would be between 4,000 and 5,000.

Although it is best to be fully vaccinated, research shows that every day a person has been vaccinated before catching the virus counts, he stressed.

Marko Noč from UKC Ljubljana said 3,670 Covid patients have been treated in intensive care since the outbreak of the epidemic, while their mortality rate is around 50%.

"So if a Covid patient ends up in intensive care, the chance they will die is 50%", whereas the chance that one needs intensive treatment is ten times smaller in those vaccinated, Noč said.

Virologist Tatjana Avšič Županc said vaccination was important because history tells us that viruses whose only host are humans can be eradicated only with vaccination. She said the vaccination rate was also important for the virus not to remain broadly spread in the society.

Tadej Battelino from UKC Ljubljana's Paediatric Clinic also made a call for children to get vaccinated. In Slovenia, the age at which children can get a Covid jab is 12.

In a separate appeal made by the GZS, director general Aleš Cantarutti urged companies to strictly control adherence to the PCT reconvalescent-vaccinated-tested rule and to continue encourage employees to get vaccinated, while enabling remote work when possible.

"It is time for us as society to start acting responsibly. Let's pull the break as society and limit mutual contacts wherever possible. Only if we join forces and act responsibly can we overcome the current wave of Covid-19," he was quoted as saying in a GZS press release.

Pointing to what he termed "today's alarming numbers", Cantarutti said Sunday's new infections were by 530 higher than a week ago, also expressing sympathy with health workers. "It is urgent to show that we are a mature society which does not need government decrees on locking down public life and economic activity."

Get all the latest data on COVID and Slovenia, in easy to read charts, here

STA, 15 November 2021 - Slovenia saw another 1,815 people test positive for coronavirus on Sunday as cases kept climbing week-on-week and over half of the PCR tests came back positive. Official figures also show hospitalisations passing the one thousand mark and another eleven Covid-19 patients loosing their lives.

Data from the Health Ministry shows a total of 1,008 patients were hospitalised with Covid-19 this morning, including 229 in intensive care units.

The figures are up by 165 and 39, respectively, on the same day a week ago.

Eleven patients died yesterday for a total death toll of 5,240.

According to the National Institute of Public Health, the 7-day average of new cases has increased by 76 from the day before to 3,224, and the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people is up by 27 to 2,030.

An estimated 42,807 people are currently infected in the country.

As many as 53% of the PCR tests performed yesterday returned positive.

Number of COVID beds rising to 1,200

STA, 15 November 2021 - Slovenian hospitals are increasing their bed capacities for Covid patients to around 1,200, of which 280 in intensive care units (ICU), as they are coping with an increasing number of Covid patients amid the fourth wave of the epidemic.

The expanded capacities will be available today or tomorrow, said Robert Carotta, the national coordinator for Covid beds at hospitals.

Ways of increasing the number of Covid beds will be discussed by hospital director and Health Ministry officials at a meeting scheduled for today.

A new Covid unit is being opened today at one of the hospitals within the system of UKC Ljubljana, the country's biggest hospital. 37 new beds will thus be available at Peter Držaj Hospital.

However, a shortage of staff is even a bigger problem as the country fights the epidemic, with all segments of the health system, healthcare and medical students, as well as the army and Red Cross helping out.

All the latest data on COVID and Slovenia

STA, 12 November 2021 - A potential new lockdown would cause the state to go bankrupt, Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek said on Friday during a government visit to the south-east Slovenia. He said the Covid crisis was not over yet, so everyone should join forces to find solutions as "there will be no more state aid".

Speaking at a debate in Novo Mesto hosted by the regional branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Novo Mesto Development Centre, he pointed to the different dilemmas regarding the proposals for restrictions to deal with the medical crisis.

He urged people to act in a responsible way to preserve their own health and the health of others, and said that Covid-19 was being abused for a "sick battle against the establishment".

The latest Covid restrictions are the last attempt at restricting the medical crisis, he said, adding that he was advocating the introduction of the PC rule, meaning only those who have recovered from Covid or have been vaccinated would get the Covid pass.

"We cannot not allow for a handful of people to hold the country hostage," he said, adding that another lockdown would not work.

Počivalšek also presented to local business executives the options for drawing EU funds from the recovery and resilience fund, as part of which the Economy Ministry expects EUR 427 million in grants for investments.

On the sidelines of the debate Počivalšek hinted in a statement for the STA that the validity of tourism vouchers could be extended beyond this year if their use will not be possible due to Covid restrictions. He said a decision on this would be made before the end of the year.

As part of the government visit, Počivalšek visited several companies in Ribnica, Kočevje and Novo Mesto today.

STA, 12 November 2021 - Primary and secondary school students will start self-testing on school premises on Wednesday, the government decided on Thursday as it delayed the 15 November start by two days. Testing will be carried out three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, and will count as a Covid pass for children.

The decree the government changed last evening also says that parents will have to sign a consent to allow their children to self-test at school.

Vaccinated school children and coronavirus convalescents will not be required to self-test.

The children whose parents will opt against at-school self-testing will switch to remote learning, under a decision taken by the education minister.

However, these parents are not entitled to compensation for wages if they take days off from work to stay home with their children.

The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs explained that parents deciding not to allow children to be self-tested is not an external or unexpected event beyond their control as defined in the law on on healthcare emergency measures.

"If a parent wants to stay at home with the child, they will have to make other arrangements with the employer," the ministry added.

By self-testing at school, children will meet the PCT (reconvalescent-vaccinated-tested) rule, which is also required for extra-curricular activities, the decree says.

At-school self-testing will be carried out under the supervision of a person assigned by the head teachers.

Special needs children will also have to self-test, albeit at home.

STA, 12 November 2021 - Slovenia confirmed 3,431 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, the second day in a row that cases declined compared to the week before. The positivity rate declined slightly as well, to 37.6%. However, hospital figures continued to rise, and the number of ICU patients is higher than at any time during the pandemic.

The number of Covid-19 patients at intensive care units rose by three to reach 215, whereas the overall number was up by 34 to 954. A total of 14 patients with Covid-19 died.

The latest data by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) show the 14-day case notification rate per 100,000 population at 1,938, up by 44 from yesterday. The seven-day average of daily cases stands at 3,140, down by 44.

The Jožef Stefan Institute meanwhile says that judging by the positivity rate, "the fourth wave of the epidemic has probably reached its peak".

The number of Covid patients in intensive care is expected to peak in the last week of November at more than 250, the research centre says on its website, adding that the 300 figure will probably not be surpassed.

"It is now key to consistently observe the reconvalescent-vaccinated-tested (PCT) rule and all the other measures so that the epidemic curve does not start rising again."

The institute has calculated that infections are currently spreading at the reproduction rate of about 1, meaning one infected person infects approximately one person.

All the latest data and charts on covid and Slovenia

STA, 11 November - Prime Minister Janez Janša dismissed the opposition's allegations about government misconduct during the course of the coronavirus pandemic, telling a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday that its decisions were based on opinions by experts.

Opposition MPs quizzed Janša about multiple aspects of government actions, ranging from the decision to roll out mass rapid testing, to the purchase of vaccines and the rationale behind measures that some MPs said had been put in place overnight without giving people adequate time to prepare.

He said mass rapid testing has been rolled out based on the advice of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), the Health Ministry and the ministry's Covid-19 expert group.

Asked whether he had known about rapid antigen tests being unreliable, which is supposedly evident from minutes of meetings of the Covid-19 expert group, Janša said it was general knowledge that rapid tests are more unreliable, which is why all positives are double-checked with PCR tests.

There was a scandal early on involving the supply of rapid tests by Majbert Pharm, some of whose owners had ties to Janša's Democrats (SDS) in the past and had bragged on social media what a "killer deal" they had signed with the state.

Questions have been raised about how their tests were verified, including by a doctor who used to work at the National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food and recently came out with accusations that the process was not up to standard.

"I did not write the criteria, the competent services did," said Janša, who also denied having personally decided that the Majbert Pharm tests would be verified at that specific lab.

Janša did acknowledge that there may have been abuses in hazard pay received by public sector employees, but he said the heads of institutions were in charge of determining the bonuses and they were responsible for their actions. Abuses that have been detected have already been sanctioned, he said.

One opposition MP alleged that Slovenia had initially opted to prioritise the AstraZeneca vaccine because it was cheaper than the jab produced by Pfizer, but Janša said this was not the whole story.

"It was not just because this vaccine is significantly cheaper, it was also because it seemed at the time that this would be the first vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)."

Then, when he provisionally took over as health minister after the resignation of Tomaž Gantar, he learnt that the EMA would probably approve the Pfizer vaccine first.

"The same day I ordered the ministry to change the strategy and that Slovenia should order all vaccines available, regardless of the price."

As for allegations that the government is taking measures overnight, Janša said experts were always consulted, and sometimes decisions were not adopted the same week even when experts proposed that they should be.

This was Janša's second testimony in front of the commission. Chair Robert Pavšič said he would be invited to testify again.

STA, 11 November 2021 - All passengers over the age of 12 will have to produce proof of vaccination, reconvalescence or testing on entry to Slovenia as of 15 November, the government decided on Thursday. The age limit has been 15 so far and the change brings it in line with the overall Covid pass mandate requirements in the country.

The government decree also specifies that self-testing is not sufficient proof to enter Slovenia. Passengers will need an official rapid test done no more than 48 hours before entry, or a PCR test done within 72 hours before entry.