STA, 24 March 2021 - Primary schools have been told by the Education Ministry to prepare for a hybrid model of classes involving alternative weeks for some pupils, should the coronavirus situation worsen.

The model, dubbed C1, foresees for classes to continue in-person for years one to five, while the rest of primary pupils would be in school every other week alternating with remote learning.

According to the online edition of the newspaper Večer, year eight to nine pupils would be in school the first week and year six to seven the next.

In a circular sent to schools, the ministry said the guidance did not mean yet that the C1 model would be in fact applied, but it was just to inform them of the potential scenario should the situation worsen.

The government is conducting its weekly review of coronavirus measures today amid expectations it could tighten restrictions as coronavirus transmissions have been increasing fast in recent days.

Year one to three primary pupils returned to school in mid-February, followed by other pupils. Secondary school pupils from year one to three have had alternative weeks classes for the third week now, after they had remote classes only since mid-October.

STA, 24 March 2020 - The national coordinator of vaccination logistics, Jelko Kacin, says it is realistic to expect that 70% of Slovenia's population, or all adult residents, would be vaccinated by the summer, as the country expects to receive more than 250,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of June.

Kacin told the press on Wednesday that the country has been assured it would receive the first delivery of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine towards the end of April.

"The government will do everything to provide for the necessary quantities for the entire adult population," said Kacin.

Slovenia has so far ordered seven million doses of various vaccines against Covid, because another round of vaccination will probably be needed in the autumn, when vaccines against new strains of the coronavirus will probably be required, he said.

Residents older than 75 years will have been vaccinated by the end of the week, with those over 70 to follow next week, he announced.

Since the age limit on the AstraZeneca vaccine will be lifted, it will be also used for older residents.

The government will discuss changes to the national vaccination strategy later in the day to prioritise the group of people over 60 and then over 50, he announced.

He said Slovenia should have enough vaccine at the start of April to also start vaccinating those over 50.

He noted however the strategy could only be put in practice if enough doses are supplied, highlighting the AstraZeneca vaccine as the most problematic in this respect.

STA, 24 March 2021 - New coronavirus cases continue to rise at double-digit rates as 1,288 cases were confirmed on Tuesday, an almost two-month high, the latest government data show. Nine Covid-19 patients died.

Nearly 7,000 PCR tests were performed and 18.5% came back positive, a share that has remained broadly flat. Almost 28,000 rapid tests were performed as well.

There were 500 Covid-19 patients in hospital, down seven on the day before, while the number of ICU cases rose by three to 99, a one-month high.

The rolling seven-day average of new daily cases rose from 829 to 855, the government announced on Twitter.

The cumulative 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents rose to 531 and the 7-day to 285, show data released by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Slovenia has so far confirmed 208,589 cases, according to the NIJZ.

The country remains in the orange tier of restrictions, but the situation is deteriorating, the government's Covid-19 spokeswoman Maja Bratuša told the daily press briefing.

The government will conduct its weekly review of restrictions in the evening after it has consulted the group of medical experts who advise the Health Ministry.

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STA, 23 March 2021 - The Trade Union of Hospitality and Tourism has made another stern appeal to the government to help the sector during the epidemic, including by a reasonable easing of coronavirus restrictions across the country, by increasing subsides for furloughed workers and expanding the use of tourist vouchers beyond accommodation facilities.

"We would like to let you know that we cannot do it anymore! That seven months of non-work and social isolation has been more than enough! That too much damage has already been done to people and the economy," reads the letter addressed to the Prime Minister and the ministers of economy, finance and labour on Monday.

Due to such a long closure, many bars and restaurants have closed shop because employers were not eligible for subsidies, with many workers ending up out of a job or hardly making ends meet on the furlough scheme.

The government should thus allow bars and restaurants to serve customers outdoors in the entire country, not just in what are currently three yellow-coded regions.

All workers should get not only 80% of their wages as part of the furlough scheme but 100%, the union says, arguing the majority are facing poverty.

The difference to 100% wage subsidy should be paid retroactively for all furloughed workers for the last three months, from December to February.

The government should make it into a law that employers receiving a subsidy for furloughed workers since epidemic was declared on 19 October, cannot lay off furloughed workers at least six months after they no longer receive it.

Those few workers in the hospitality and tourism sector who do work should meanwhile receive a special crisis allowance of at least EUR 200.

The union says that tourist vouchers should be expanded to other businesses in the sector than just accommodation facilities.

Hospitality establishments should be allowed to sell drinks rather than just food at their take-away points.

The ministers were urged to start easing the restrictions for hospitality and tourism across the country rather than by regions.

The union indicated that, should the government not heed its call, it could resort to protests such as those by taxi drivers and primary and secondary school pupils.

"All the other segments of the economy and the public sector work and as we know, it is there that infections also originate from, while no production facility has been closed. What is more, you do not even talk about these infections in public, whereas the sector that is closed is being suspected of spreading infections."

A similar call was made by the OZS chamber of small business, which urged the government on Monday not to close small businesses if the epidemiological situation should worsen.

It believes that "services and retail have never been a source of infections, so potentially closing them again in the third wave of the epidemic would make no sense".

STA, 22 March 2021 - After a five-month break, Ljubljana Castle can again be accessed by funicular, but before buying a ticket, those yearning for a great view of Ljubljana have to prove that they are not infected with coronavirus, the city of Ljubljana's company operating the funicular said in a release.

The funicular was stopped on 24 October when the government tightened coronavirus restrictions as Slovenia entered the second wave of the epidemic, and except for five days in December, it remained closed until today.

The city of Ljubljana used the time for maintenance, thoroughly checking the entire funicular and the track.

Related: 25 things to know about Ljubljana Castle...

Following the check, the Ljubljanski Grad company obtained a permit and the funicular could resume operations today under the conditions valid for cableways.

Passengers have to produce a negative PCR or rapid test result not older than seven days, a certificate of vaccination, or a certificate of having recovered from Covid-19 not older than six months.

However, the company would like the funicular to be subject to rules applying to public transport where passengers do not have to prove their coronavirus status.

It has addressed a request to a relevant ministry but is still waiting for a reply.

Last year, Ljubljana Castle, one of the city's most popular sights, was closed for three and a half months, and visitor numbers plummeted by 76.5% to roughly 314,000 over 2019. The funicular, which was closed slightly longer, saw an even steeper drop, that of 83% to 97,600.

A rise in domestic tourists was recorded, yet foreign tourists still represented almost 60% of the total figure, the majority from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

STA, 22 March 2021 - Bars and restaurants in the Primorsko-Notranjska region could start serving customers outdoors from Monday, having been promoted to tier yellow to join Posavje and South-East Slovenia, but only a few opened due to fear of new closures.. Stores in Obalno-Kraška are meanwhile allowed to reopen provided staff get tested weekly as the coastal region has moved to tier orange.

The government adopted the decisions on regions last week when the epidemiological situations in the Primorsko-Notranjska and Obalno-Kraška regions showed signs of improvement.

Outdoor serving in the three yellow-coded regions is permitted between 6am and 7pm. Prevention measures must be observed, including mask-wearing and weekly testing among staff and maintaining distance between tables. The exemptions from the mandatory testing are those who have recovered from Covid-19 or those who have been vaccinated.

A maximum number of patrons sitting at the same table is four. A customer may enter the establishment only to go to the restroom.

But despite the easing of restrictions, not many bars and restaurants in Primorsko-Notranjska actually opened today, fearing they would be forced to close again soon, a possibility mentioned by the head of the government Covid-19 advisory group, Mateja Logar.

Some also said it was rather cold to sit outside, so they offer takeaway instead.

The hospitality and tourism sectors are, however, very upset by Logar's labelling of the sectors as "less important". "We have been closed for more than six months, the economic damage is enormous. Data show that the hospitality and tourism sectors, and the related sectors generate 20% of the gross domestic product, which means they are extremely important economic sectors," said Blaž Cvar, the head of the Hospitality and Tourism Section at the Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business (OZS).

He added that Logar's statement was also a severe insult to about 40,000 people working in the hospitality sector.

According to Cvar, the OZS's Hospitality and Tourism Section has so far not received a reply to its question whether serving food and drinks outdoor indeed posed a threat to public health.

He said they expected the group led by Logar to present its methodology for determining which economic branches are more and which are less important.

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The entire country is meanwhile firmly planted in the orange tier. The coastal region has been upgraded to this level of measures, meaning inter-regional travel restrictions have been lifted.

From today, stores and repair shops under 400 square metres, real estate agencies, hair salons, beauticians, pet salons and expert training activities of up to ten persons in the region are allowed to conduct business as long as staff produce a negative test.

Pharmacies, gas stations, post offices, delivery services, automobile and bike repair shops and construction services may remain open regardless of staff testing.

Moreover, rallies of up to ten people are allowed across the country. The same goes for religious services.

The decree is effective until 26 March. The government will discuss the potential extension on Wednesday when it is expected to conduct its weekly review of the epidemiological situation and restrictions.

STA, 22 March 2021 - Nation-wide exams for primary school children in years six and nine were cancelled last year due to coronavirus, but they are planned to be held as usual this year. The exam is taken with a pen and paper, and it will be no different this year. But to test the option of taking it online, a special pilot project is being launched today.

From Monday to Friday, more than 40,000 pupils in forms six and nine at 441 primary schools will be taking the exam online - on a computer or a tablet - to get the ropes.

Every school has been assigned the day and several slots to carry out the e-trail exam, with the majority of kids to take it in a computer classroom at their school.

Up to 5,000 pupils will be sitting for the exam simultaneously, for which reason schools have been divided into two approximately equally large groups.

The pilot project is designed to test how the network works if used by several thousand pupils at the same time and which problems may emerge, Darko Zupanc, the director of the National Examinations Centre, said on Friday.

This should allow education authorities to see whether it would be possible for the exam to be simultaneously taken at all primary schools, or also at home.

Kids will be able to use various online tools to do the assignments, while they will have a chance to retake the exam on their home computer later on the same day.

The electronic exam will not be graded because it is not meant to test knowledge, so children will get no test results.

At the end of the exam, they will have to answer several questions on their examination experience.

Zupanc said the data obtained from this pilot project should facilitate development of systemic tools for exams and grading with new technologies, especially in case of distance learning.

The national exams for primary schools were introduced 20 years ago and were last year cancelled for the first time.

However, they are not compulsory and have no bearing on the pupils' final grades, but there is also an idea to introduce them for children in third form.

The exams are not meant for schools to compare how well their pupils are doing in comparison with other schools, but for individual schools to evaluate their own work, the head of the national commission for the nation-wide exams in primaries, Janez Vogrinc, said on Friday.

The exam is taken in three stages; children in year six will this year take it in their mother tongue on 4 May, maths on 6 May and the foreign language on 10 May.

But Slovenian Headteachers' Association president Gregor Pečan believes that in the given situation, the national exams for primaries should not be held this year at all.

A month and a half after primaries reopened following a four-month closure, gaps in knowledge are starting to emerge, he said at today's government Covid briefing.

Pečan also recalled that the exams had been cancelled last year while pupils had been distance learning only for approximately two months.

"The majority of headteachers and other educators maintain that what is needed more is peace and support to rectify the situation as soon as possible."

Although admitting not everything was as gloomy as some see it when speaking of "a lost generation", he said "very good planning will be needed to restore the situation this year and in coming school years to get the generations to the level we want".

For the same reason the headteachers are against organising various competitions for primary school children, urging "immediate suspension" of competition activities, which he said were now fully underway.

Pečan also touched on today's launch of testing whether national exams could be taken online, saying the information he had showed there were many problems.

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STA, 21 March 2021 - Slovenia reported 516 new coronavirus cases in 2,849 PCR tests on Saturday for a positivity rate of some 18%. The seven-day average of new daily cases kept up its upward trend, standing at 808. Five Covid-19 deaths were recorded, show fresh official data.

A total of 6,843 rapid antigen tests were also conducted with all the positives there re-examined with PCR tests.

The number of persons in hospital totalled 473 this morning, up by 15 on the day before, including 93 patients in intensive care, up by five. 19 were discharged home.

The increase in hospitalisations is likely a result of both the rising trend in infections as well as the fact that the total of patients usually increases over the weekend as fewer of them are discharged then as a rule.

The seven-day average increased by six to 808. The 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents meanwhile stands at 500, up by seven.

In the past seven days, 5,690 infections have been recorded, some 16% increase on the previous 7-day period.

According to the tracker site Covid-19 Sledilnik, the latest deaths have brought the death toll to 3,972.

Since the start of the pandemic, Slovenia has reported 206,027 cases, of which 10,536 are deemed active, show data by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

STA, 20 March 2021 - The head of Slovenia's group of experts who advise the government on coronavirus measures has warned that the country is no longer just facing a new wave of the epidemic but is already at the start of the third wave.

"We're definitely no longer on the verge or facing the third wave, we're at the beginning of the third wave and we've started it with second-wave figures that are still high," infectious diseases specialist Mateja Logar wrote on Twitter.

She said experts have already said everything that they know. "Now it's up to each and everyone of us to do the maximum they can to make sure the crest is as low as possible."

Her statement comes after a week in which daily new cases rose on average by a fifth over the week before, indication that the country has entered exponential growth.

The rolling seven-day average of new daily infections exceeded 800 after well over a month, as the prevalence of more virulent variants of coronavirus continues to rise.

However, the situation in hospitals remains stable and hospitalisations are at less than half their peak. Deaths, while slightly higher than at the lowest point, are significantly lower as well as a majority of the oldest population, which is at highest risk of severe Covid or death, has been vaccinated.

The latest official data show over 182,000 have received the first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, roughly 8.7% of the population, and almost 104,000 have received both shots.

Moreover, more than one in ten Slovenians has had a confirmed infection. While this does not preclude a reinfection, it gives most of those infected at least a degree of immunity.

STA, 20 March 2021 - Slovenia has spent billions to help companies weather the coronavirus crisis and keep unemployment low. Business associations say companies are currently in good shape overall, but they highlight pockets of problems, especially among SMEs and in industries that were shut down for a long time.

The state has put in place measures such as furlough payments, subsidised short-time work, coverage of fixed costs, new lending facilities, loan guarantees and a 12-month loan moratorium.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) says the current liquidity of the corporate sector is "relatively good" thanks in particular to loan deferrals, which GZS's chief economist Staš Ivanc estimates are worth a combined EUR 2.1 billion.

"Companies and banks will probably be able to agree a continuation of loan payments, but it is of course possible that this will not be viable in all cases," Ivanc says.

Loans that are more than 90 days overdue have in fact declined year-on-year and in December accounted for just 1.3% of all loans, show GZS data.

And a full 85% of companies polled by the GZS said they had a positive EBITDA last year despite the epidemic.

Another metric that indicates the economy is in good shape is the number of bankruptcies.

Last year a total of 1,125 bankruptcies were initiated, according to the Agency for Public Legal Records (AJPES), down significantly from the year before and the lowest figure since 2015.

In the first two months of this year there were 187, fewer than in the same period last year.

And central bank data show non-performing loans up only slightly last year, by 0.1 percentage points to 1.9% of total loan portfolio at the level of the entire sector.

Nevertheless, the central bank data also show a significant increase in the share of non-performing loans to the restaurant industry, which account for a tenth of all non-performing loans.

The Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business (OZS) says the epidemic has been hard on specialised stores as well as services activities such as restaurants and bars, which were either shut down or were severely constrained during the epidemic.

The OZS says the majority of SMEs had decided to retain staff on state subsidies rather than making layoffs, but despite the subsidies and the gradual reopening of all industries, it estimates it will take long before business is back to pre-pandemic levels.

"We expect the recovery to last long, two to three years. This is why we are appealing to the government to spend the bulk of EU economic recovery funds on industries that have been hit hardest," the OZS says.

The GZS's Ivanc notes that most of the measures which have propped up liquidity will be phased out this year. The coming months, when loan deferrals made last spring will expire, will be "a test of the resilience of companies and banks".

The country's largest banks are bullish.

"The situation in the economy is significantly better than we had dared to expect when the first wave of the epidemic hit... We do not expect major problems with loan payments," says Andrej Lasič, executive director at NLB responsible for large corporate and institutional investors clients.

Both NLB, the market leader, and NKBM, the runner-up, say they will work with closely with companies in industries such as tourism to find the best solutions on an individual basis.

"We're aware of the important role we're playing in mitigating the consequences of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, which is why we are a responsible partner to our clients," NKBM said.

STA, 18 March 2021- Slovenia has decided to resume using the AstraZeneca vaccine after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) assessed AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine "safe and effective" after a review of possible blood clot risks.

"The EMA has fund that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and efficient. Today we'll notify vaccination centres to resume vaccination," Health Minister Janez Poklukar told the press on Thursday.

Slovenia opted for a suspension on Monday after reports of blood clots led many European countries to halt the vaccination pending an additional review by the EMA.

Senior officials will be among the first to get the jab, the government announced on Twitter.

President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Janez Janša, National Assembly Speaker Igor Zorčič and National Council President Alojz Kovšča will get the jab tomorrow afternoon.

After the suspension, Slovenia has over 14,000 shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine on store.

So far about one percent of those who were vaccinated with AstraZeneca in Slovenia have reported adverse effects, roughly the same share as those who receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

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