STA, 19 August 2020 - Slovenia plans to put Croatia on the red list of countries from which travellers must undergo a 14-day quarantine. Those already in Croatia have until the end of the week to avoid quarantine, those travelling there as of Friday will have to quarantine, government spokesman Jelko Kacin said on Wednesday.

The decision to red-list Croatia will formally be made at Thursday's cabinet session and published in the Official Gazette the same day.

It will also be clear tomorrow how long exactly those who are currently in Croatia will have to return without quarantining, with Kacin saying the deadline may be extended to Monday if necessary.

"Fact is that the situation in Croatia is deteriorating dramatically. Data on infections show that the situation is really bad," Kacin said after the government meet epidemiologists to discuss the way forward.

He said Croatia was likely to today exceed 40 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in over a 14-day period, the threshold in Slovenia for putting countries on the red list.

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"We don't have any other choice but to urge our citizens to return from the dangerous country as soon as possible, regardless of what kind of arrangements they have. The situation is deteriorating rapidly and will get much worse," he said.

The decision comes after the government started issuing increasingly stern warnings to Slovenian holidaymakers in Croatia that the situation was getting out of hand, in particular due to beach parties at several popular tourist resorts in Dalmatia.

Almost half the new cases Slovenia registered on Monday were imported from Croatia, and most of the infected persons are young, under 35, raising fears that a surge in infections could derail the start of the school year.

Unofficial information indicates several options were under discussion in recent days, including mandatory quarantine just for those under 35 or a waiver of quarantine for those who own boats and property in Croatia.

These considerations appear to have been shelved now, although Kacin said boat and property owners would get a chance before winter to sort things out.

"This will be a one-off opportunity, strictly limited and expressed in hours, in order to prevent people heading to Croatia this weekend and making traffic even worse," he said.

Several exemptions will be available in order to facilitate cross-border commerce and transport, but Kacin did not elaborate what they would be.

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STA, 19 August 2020 - The number of new Sars-CoV-2 infections reached a new four-month high on Tuesday, as 37 out of 1,092 tests came back positive. There were no deaths, meaning the death toll remains at 129. Presently 17 patients need hospital treatment, with three receiving intensive care.

There have so far been 2,493 confirmed Sars-CoV-2 infections in Slovenia with 285 of them active infections, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

Tuesday's tests confirmed 14 infections with individuals aged 15 to 24 years, seven in the 25-34 age group, six among 35- to 44-year-olds, five in the 45-54 category and three among 55 to 64-year-olds. One person was older than 85.

The infections were again very much dispersed regionally, involving 22 municipalities, with by far the largest number of active cases, 70, being reported for Ljubljana.

Among Tuesday's 37 new infections, three were established with foreign citizens.

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STA, 18 August 2020 - The government's Covid-19 spokesperson Jelko Kacin said on Tuesday that a decision on imposing quarantine on persons returning from Croatia would be made at Thursday's government session. The measure is expected to kick in by the start of the next week, with enough time given to people to return home before its implementation, said Kacin.

Given the rising numbers of imported coronavirus cases from Croatia in the past week, restrictions have to be implemented to curb that, said Kacin, adding that it was yet to be seen whether there would be any potential exemptions from the measure based on age, region or a negative coronavirus test.

On Wednesday, the government is to meet experts at Brdo pri Kranju to discuss the details of mandatory quarantine for travellers from Croatia and come up with a final strategy. Kacin called for a targeted measure.

On Thursday evening, the government will then endorse the measure, giving people a couple or a few days to return to Slovenia from Croatia in time to avoid the mandatory quarantine.

Kacin expects the measure to enter into force during the weekend. Police officers will be required to issue a quarantine order for everyone returning from Croatia, he added.

Until Monday, the Health Ministry issued 50,500 such orders. The average time of issuing the order at a border crossing is about 14 minutes, the ministry told the STA on Tuesday.

The bulk of quarantine orders is issued to persons coming from countries deemed highly Covid-19 risky. Contacts with those infected with the virus may also prompt such a measure.

There is no detailed data on the number of Slovenians currently holidaying in Croatia though. According to the country's figures, there are some 160,000 Slovenian citizens in Croatia at the moment, said Kacin.

Croatia has recorded 914,000 arrivals of Slovenian tourists since the beginning of 2020. Slovenians have been topped only by German tourists in terms of generating overnight stays in Croatia's tourism this year, creating 7 million overnight stays, said the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sport.

Kacin said that the government was daily monitoring the coronavirus situation in Croatia and other hotspots in the Western Balkans. The new cases imported from Croatia mainly stem from the country's southern regions and mostly involve persons aged between 15 and 35. On Monday, 12 infections were confirmed in persons who had returned from Croatia.

Kacin pointed out that the young were attending parties on Croatia's coast. They get infected and do not disclose who else was with them, adding that it was likely many were not detected and kept on spreading the virus.

Asked whether Slovenia would later upgrade Croatia from the red list of countries, which signals high risk in terms of coronavirus contagion, to the yellow list, which does not require mandatory self-isolation for Slovenian travellers, if Croatia closed nightclubs, Kacin said that Slovenia would welcome any measures stemming the spread of the virus.

He pointed out that the number of imported cases had a great impact on Slovenia's epidemiologic status. The effective reproduction number, showing to how many people the infected person transmits the virus, would stand at 0.68 if there would be no imported cases. As it is, the number is 1.24.

This is an emerging story, and updates may be added later today

STA, 18 August 2020 - As things stand now, all primary and secondary school children will return to school as the new school year begins on 1 September, yet all preventive coronavirus recommendations will have to be observed, Education Minister Simona Kustec announced at a news conference at Brdo pri Kranju on Tuesday.

"But if the epidemiological situation worsens considerably in the next 14 days, we will have to take that into account," the minister added.

She said the situation should be clearer after Thursday's government session, at which Health Minister Tomaž Gantar will present the epidemiological situation.

Kustec expects that based on that assessment of the situation, "the best possible solutions" will be adopted.

"I myself will back all the decisions leading to a safe return to school for all primary and secondary school pupils."

The development comes after four scenarios were prepared taking into account various Covid-19 situations and following calls for all children to return to classroom.

The Education Ministry-prepared models for the coming school year envisage fully opened and fully closed schools as the two extreme options.

The two middle options would see a combination of lessons in class and distance learning, with younger children being prioritised for the former.

At today's conference of head teachers at Brdo pri Kranju, the ministry presented a special publication with the four possible models for 2020/21 with instructions of how to act when applying either of the models.

It is model B that envisages the return to classrooms for all primary and secondary school children while recommendations to prevent infections are simultaneously observed.

The space and staff restrictions imposed as part of model B are such as to still allow for schooling in classroom, Kustec believes.

Social distancing for pupils from different classes will have to be maintained, hands regularly washed and classrooms regularly aired.

Classes are recommended to be divided into smaller groups, if possible.

Face masks will not be obligatory in classroom for pupils, whereas teachers will have to wear them if an adequate distance could not be maintained.

Pupils will have their morning meal in the classroom, while lunch will be served in the dining hall with the maximum number of pupils allowed to be in it at a time to be set.

Parent-teacher meetings should be held remotely.

Kustec said that if some of the restrictions, which had been harmonised with all stakeholders, proved unrealistic, they would be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

National Education Institute director Vinko Logaj believes the recommendations are feasible, but he admitted that some would require much more communication and coordination.

Both urged all stakeholders, including parents and pupils, to help create the optimal conditions for the full return to school. Kustec said that only healthy children and teachers should come to school.

STA, 17 August 2020 - The Slovenian contact tracing app #OstaniZdrav (#StayWell) has been green-lit by relevant authorities and is already available to be installed in GooglePlay, said Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik on Monday, announcing more details would be unveiled on Tuesday.

The minister moreover shared a link where the app can be installed free of charge on Android mobile devices.

More details are to follow tomorrow at the daily coronavirus briefing.

Government Covid-19 spokesman Jelko Kacin said more than a week ago that the app would be available in AppStore for users of devices running on the iOS mobile operating system by the end of August.

The app has been localised on the basis of the German Corona-Warn-App under the contract the government signed with developer RSteam. It has been deemed operational and tested by the Public Administration Ministry and the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The app is voluntary, although it was initially planned that it would have to be installed by all persons with confirmed infections and those ordered to quarantine.

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STA, 17 August 2020 - Thirteen new cases of SARS-Cov-2 were confirmed in 393 tests in Slovenia on Sunday, show data released by the government. No deaths were reported. The total number of cases in Slovenia reached 2,429 with 248 of them active infections, according to national tracker covid-19.sledilnik. State and health care reps are scheduled to meet this afternoon.

Nineteen people were in hospital on Sunday with three requiring intensive care. The biggest increase in infections, 4, was detected in Ljubljana, and there were two new cases in Novo Mesto, where the virus was confirmed last week in a local nursing home.

Covid-19.sledilnik data also show that four of the newly confirmed cases were among the age group of 35-44, three in the 15-24 age group, and two each in the age groups 25-34 and 55-64. One case was an infant younger than four.

After a large number of cases confirmed last week was in people who returned from Croatia, a popular summer destination for Slovenians, Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said on Monday that he was scheduled to meet representatives of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) in the afternoon, and Prime Minister Janez Janša after that.

No changes yet for Croatia

Talking to the press on a different occasion, Gantar would not discuss any detail, but said he personally would like for Slovenia to introduce mandatory quarantine for those returning from Croatia, but only in a few days, so as to give people an opportunity to return.

Imposing quarantine any sooner would mean tens of thousands of people in quarantine, which, Gantar says, is infeasible.

"We have to weigh our options and make a decision fast, considering that the situation is getting worse and that there is a threat of imported cases, mostly from Croatia," said Gantar. "A decision must be made before school starts."

The minister called on those returning from Croatia to self-isolate if at all possible, appealing especially to health care and retirement home staff.

He also advised anybody still planning a vacation to avoid Croatia. "In this case, exposure is literally irresponsible, you'd be putting at risk not only yourself and your closest family members but also your colleagues and relatives."

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STA, 15 August 2020 - The tourism vouchers have made for a good season in Gorenjska, one of Slovenia's prime tourism regions with its Alpine lakes of Bled and Bohinj and the mountain centre of Kranjska Gora. Tourism officials say domestic guests have almost fully offset the drop in foreign tourists, an exception being Bled where some hotels have remained closed.

According to the director of the Kranjska Gora Tourist Board Blaž Veber, capacities in the Upper Sava Valley in the north-west of the country are almost fully booked. Some vacancies remain in camps and in mountain huts since the weather has been a bit capricious this year.

Veber hopes the voucher system will be continued into next year, "since we know that the global situation is still very critical, that new hotspots are emerging and that things will not quickly get back to what they were before 9 March".

As many as 90% of the guests in Kranjska Gora this year have been Slovenians. Many have also been coming only for one-day trips, a development that has been observed for lake Bohinj as well, where this is being stimulated with more frequent and cheaper bus lines.

The director of Tourism Bohinj Klemen Langus said that capacities are 90% or 95% full and that is seems that July and August will see similar figures as last year after only 30% of last year's performance was recorded in June before the state-subsidised vouchers were introduced.

As many Slovenian only come for a one-day hike or a swim, domestic guests have been less dominant in accommodation facilities, but they have nonetheless been accounting for 60% to 65% of overnight stays.

Slovenian guest have meanwhile traditionally been a very small minority at Bled, where they usually account for only 5% of overnight stays.

Some hotels have remained closed this year, while the open ones have seen 70% to 80% of their capacities filled. Private room providers and the camping and glamping sites have on there been happy with the figures.

"Given the situation, we are fairly happy with the visit in August," Romana Purkart of Tourism Bled explained. July, with 60% of capacities filled, was much better than June but it cannot compare to last year, she added

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STA, 14 August 2020 - The number of new infections reached a four-month high on Thursday, as 37 out of 937 tests came back positive, with most new cases coming from Croatia. One infection was confirmed at the Hrastnik care home, which has been a hotspot for weeks.

Eighteen people were in hospital yesterday, of whom four needed intensive care while just as many were released from hospital, the government said on Twitter.

According to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik, there are currently 213 active cases in the country and so far 2,369 infections have been confirmed. The death toll remains at 129.

Recently, most new infections have been coming from Croatia, where many Slovenians, especially young people, are spending their holidays.

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In Hrastnik, four people were tested yesterday, two from the care home. An infection was confirmed in one of the residents, the Hrastnik municipality said.

There are currently 28 active infections among residents and five among staff at the home.

So far, 50 residents and 11 employees have tested positive at the home. Nine residents have died because of Covid-19. Since the outbreak at the home on 10 July, six employees and 13 residents have recovered from the disease.

Nightclubs to remain closed

STA, 13 August 2020 - The government has extended the ban on night clubs, the only type of establishment in Slovenia that has not been able to reopen since mid-March, as well as the ban on gatherings of more than ten people or up to 50 when the organiser keeps a list of the participants.

The Government Communication Office said the latest extension was based on the recommendation of the group of experts advising the government on Covid-19.

The group made the recommendation after considering the country's epidemiological status, finding socialising as the key source of transmission.

The group's head Bojana Beović told reporters today that the stringent ban on socialising and night clubs appeared to be effective.

Slovenia saw the number of daily infections spike on Tuesday to 31, a one month high, with another 29 recorded on Wednesday, which public health officials blamed on cases imported from Croatia, mostly by young people attending parties there.

The country's case count reached 2,332 by Wednesday midnight, of which 193 are active cases.

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STA, 13 August 2020 - A total of 29 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in 856 tests on Wednesday in Slovenia, according to the most recent data released by the government on Thursday. No new deaths were reported.

New cases were reported in 14 municipalities, including in Ljubljana (5), Celje (3), Vipava (2) and Starše (2). The majority of the new cases were in the 15-34 age group, according to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik.

Ljubljana now has 41 active cases after recording nine of the 31 cases confirmed on Tuesday. Most of the latest cases have been imported from Croatia.

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Marta Grgič Vitek of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) said imported cases have outnumbered local transmissions in the last week, with 27 of the 33 most recent imported cases coming from Croatia.

"It is a problem if so many cases are imported from Croatia on a daily basis," she said, adding that many of the infected persons have told epidemiologists they had been to beach parties in Croatia.

If this trend continues, the government task force for coronavirus will propose that Slovenia introduce stricter measures on the border, perhaps even a mandatory quarantine for travellers from Croatia, said Bojana Beović, the head of the task force.

"In the event that this continues, we may enter the autumn season with problems associated with socialising in schools and workplaces. There could be outbreaks of infections," according to Beović.

The total number of infections reached 2,332 yesterday. There were 193 active cases and 19 patients were in hospital, with two requiring intensive care.

The Covid-19 death toll remains at 129.

Beović and epidemiologist Marta Grgič Vitek also told the press that epidemiologists in Slovenia were overworked as they were constantly looking for contacts of the infected persons in order to stem the spreading of the virus.

"Abroad, one epidemiologist comes at every 10,000 residents, and in Slovenia there is only one epidemiologist per 50,000 residents or even more," Beović said.

Grgič Vitek of the contagious diseases centre of the National Public Health Institute meanwhile noted that 30 new infections a day was a "critical number" for the epidemiological service.

In a response to an MP question, the government said today that it would try to encourage medical students to specialise in public health, with six specialisations open this year and at least in the next five years.

"At this pace, it will be possible to get at least ten additional doctors specialised in epidemiology in the next ten years," the government added.

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STA, 12 August 2020 - Slovenia confirmed 31 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a one-month high, as 1,118 tests were performed. There were no new deaths reported, show official government data.

Slovenia's daily infections were fairly stable since mid-July, rarely exceeding 20. The latest increase comes amidst warnings that many young people are returning from holidays infected.

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The number of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic has thus increased to 2,303 and 129 people have died of Covid-19.

There are currently 23 people with Covid-19 in hospital, two of them in intensive care.

The number of active cases is estimated at 188, up a tenth over yesterday, according to data tracker Covid-19.sledilnik.org

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