STA, 17 March 2021 - Marjan Šarec, the head of the opposition LMŠ party carrying his name, announced an impeachment of Prime Minister Janez Janša on Wednesday because Slovenia did not order the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine in the second round of the orders last December. Šarec argues Janša thus caused direct damage to citizens and acted against the Constitution.

A report from the EU's vaccination steering board released yesterday showed Slovenia had ordered 90% of the vaccines it was entitled to in the first and second quarter of the year on a pro rata basis, and that it did not put in an order for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during a second round of joint EU purchasing in December 2020, when an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were available under the first contract with the company.

Šarec said the LMŠ was puzzled why Slovenia did not order the vaccine, whether it was "speculating with prices", as the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine was costlier than AstraZeneca, or the goal was to "prolong the epidemic endlessly".

"This has caused direct damage to the citizens and is also a violation of Article 51 of the Constitution, which speaks about the right to healthcare, so the LMŠ will use all means available to protect the rights of the citizens," Šarec pointed out.

The LMŠ head labelled the vaccination strategy inefficient and said Janša was trying to put the blame on everyone else but his team.

An impeachment against the prime minister can be filed in parliament by at least 10 MPs. Šarec is confident the entire opposition will be united on this and that it will "become clear in the National Assembly who cares about citizens and who does not".

Coordinator of the opposition Left Luka Mesec said the opposition would definitely respond to the news that Slovenia did not order as much vaccine as it could, but that it was yet to reach an agreement on which instrument would be the best.

He said he had already called a meeting of heads of opposition parties for Thursday.

Mesec said it was outrageous that the government had been looking to save EUR 5 million when the epidemic cost the country EUR 5.9 million a day and thousands of people have died.

If, however, the cost was not an issue, then the quarantine, epidemic and state of emergency suit someone in the government, as its goal has not been to fight the epidemic but to thoroughly rearrange social relations and take complete control over this country, Mesec said.

The opposition Social Democrats said they were yet to study the impeachment proposal. The party head, Tanja Fajon, said the SD would demand a session of the parliamentary Health Committee to discuss the ordering of Covid-19 vaccines. She noted that the EU had also not done everything right.

The Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the National Party (SNS) did not comment today.

Former Health Minister Tomaž Gantar told the STA today that he had not been informed last autumn of the fact that Slovenia could have ordered additional quantities of the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine.

A commission at the Health Ministry, which has also drawn up the vaccination strategy, was in charge of that, he said.

According to him, the commission obviously decided at the time not to order additional shots of the vaccine because it was expected that the AstraZeneca vaccine would be registered first.

Marta Grgič Vitek, the national vaccination programme coordinator, told reporters today that she was a member of the commission and that all members of the body argued as much vaccines should be ordered as Slovenia was eligible for relative to the population.

Janša told reporters in Brdo pri Kranju that Gantar or the vaccination commission could hardly be blamed for not ordering the vaccine, because at the time the move had been logical in a way. "We should have probably responded quicker, when it became clear that there are complications with this vaccine, but it was not yet clear which one will be authorised first."

He added this coincided with the "artificially created political crisis", efforts to bring down the coalition, departure of one party from the coalition and the resignation of Gantar.

The head of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), Zdravko Počivalšek, said he had learnt about the impeachment motion from the media and that the government had ordered enough vaccines from all producers available.

A similar statement came from Matej Tonin, the head of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi). He said the problem was not that Slovenia had ordered insufficient amount of the vaccine but that the vaccine had not been supplied. He believes the purpose of the impeachment was to divide.

STA, 16 March 2021 - A poll conducted by Valicon shows that Slovenians trust the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine for Covid-19 the most among all coronavirus vaccines, followed by Johnson & Johnson. The share of Slovenians who intend to get vaccinated was up by one percentage points to 56%.

In the pollster's survey carried out between 4 and 7 March among 506 adults, these two vaccines are followed by Moderna and AstraZeneca in terms of the respondent's confidence.

Valicon noted that the poll had been conducted before vaccination with AstraZeneca was suspended in some European countries, including yesterday in Slovenia.

The Russian vaccine Sputnik and Chinese vaccines are on the bottom of the list, with 16% of surveyed Slovenians trusting the former and only 5% trusting the latter.

Around a third of the respondents do not trust either of the vaccines, while 56% of the respondents said they would get vaccinated, which is one percentage point more than in the previous Valicon survey.

STA, 16 March 2021 - Slovenia has ordered 90% of the vaccines it is entitled to in the first and second quarter of the year on a pro rata basis. In December, it did not put in an order for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during a second round of joint EU purchasing, show figures from the EU's vaccination steering board.

This would suggest Slovenia does not have as much vaccine as it would be entitled to because in December, when an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was available under the first contract with the company, it did not place an order. Only Slovakia and Bulgaria made the same decision back then, according to these figures.

Slovenia ordered 80% of the Pfizer/BioNTech of the vaccine it was eligible for on a pro rata basis, a share that is not among the lowest in the EU. Slovakia for example ordered 56% of its share, and Croatia and Bulgaria 46%.

Unofficial information from well placed sources in Brussels suggests price may have played a role, since the Pfizer/BioNTech is more expensive.

On the other hand, Slovenia ordered 100% of its pro rata share of the Moderna Vaccine, 102.6% of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 100% of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Overall, Slovenia ordered almost 1.9 million vaccines for the first and second quarter, according to the figures by the steering board, which features representatives of all member states.

Prime Minister Janez Janša responded to the news on Twitter saying that if Slovenia had not ordered an additional million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after he provisionally took over as health minister, its vaccination rate would now be on a par with Bulgaria and Croatia, which have some of the lowest vaccination rates according to publicly available figures.

"Before, they ordered mostly #AstraZeneca," he tweeted.

Janša took over the health portfolio on 18 December after the resignation of Tomaž Gantar and was acting as health minister until Janez Poklukar was appointed in late February.

Minister Poklukar, speaking to journalists via videolink after meeting his EU counterparts, said he did not have detailed information about Slovenia's vaccine orders.

He said, however, that doubts remained about the distribution of vaccines, adding that the key thing at this point was a sufficient supply of vaccines in accordance with the contracts with manufacturers.

The Health Ministry additionally noted that, in the first phase, Slovenia had fully utilised the possibility to purchase Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on a pro rata basis.

In the autumn, it did not opt for an additional order, as it had been expected that AstraZeneca vaccine would be approved before that. Decision was made to order all possible quantities after the leadership at the ministry changed.

Slovenia has thus secured 936,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the first contract and 912,000 from the contract on the first additional quantity. It still waits for a new contract for an additional 410,700 doses, the ministry said.

"Slovenia has thus utilised all contractual possibilities, but not all optional possibilities for the two mentioned producers. The same is true for Moderna, the order of which is awaiting final confirmation."

The ministry added that Slovenia was also interested in all doses of vaccines that other countries would not want to have.

The figures come after six prime ministers, including Janša, held a meeting in Vienna today to call for a "correction mechanism" to fix what they called the unfair distribution of coronavirus vaccines within the bloc.

The European Commission has said the pro rata system was the underlying principle, but member states may agree otherwise, with some getting less and others getting more than their pro rata share.

STA, 15 March 2021 - Slovenia has decided to temporarily halt the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine pending a decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Health Minister Janez Poklukar said Monday the Slovenian expert group for vaccines had not found reasonable grounds to stop using the jab.

Nevertheless, as a matter of precaution it is proposed that vaccination be suspended.

All those scheduled to receive the vaccine in the coming days will be rescheduled, whereas vaccination with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will continue as planned, he said.

The decision comes after several European countries, including Germany, France and Italy, have decided to halt the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine amidst reports of blood clots.

This is despite evidence that blood clots are no more likely among those that have received the vaccine than among the general population.

The EMA has announced a special meeting for Thursday to decide on further actions over the AstraZeneca jab, according to media reports, even as it stressed that the benefits of the jab outweighed the risks..

STA, 15 March 2021 - Stricter rules to enter Slovenia have kicked in for several groups, including people commuting daily to work outside Slovenia, in an EU or Schengen country. From today, they only do not have to quarantine if they can produce a negative coronavirus test result not older than seven days. The measure applies to arrivals from red-listed countries.

People commuting daily to work in one of the EU or Schengen-area countries can enter Slovenia without mandatory quarantine with a negative test result, a PCR or a rapid one, which is not older than seven days. They have to return within 14 hours after leaving Slovenia.

A negative test result is also obligatory for persons crossing the border for educational or research purposes in an EU or Schengen country. The person accompanying the one travelling for these purposes can enter Slovenia under the same conditions, but has to return immediately after dropping them off.

The new measure also applies to arrivals from another EU or Schengen zone country where they engage in day care or personal assistance, maintenance works on a private building or land, or in activity designed to eliminate risks to health, lives and property. They must return to Slovenia within 12 hours after crossing the border.

A negative test result is also obligatory for dual owners or lessees of land in bordering areas or on both sides of border who cross into a neighbouring country to do agricultural work; they have to return to Slovenia within ten hours.

Persons coming to Slovenia for a medical appointment need a negative test result too, and are obliged to leave the country upon completing it.

The government introduced this measure for most of these groups at the start of February, but soon softened it to apply only to persons arriving in Slovenia from EU or Schengen countries with a worse epidemiological situation than Slovenia.

For all the other arrivals from the red-listed countries quarantine is still compulsory, while it can be avoided with a negative test result; the PCR test must not be older than 48 hours since the swab was taken and the rapid antigen test not older than 24 hours.

Those who have already fallen ill with Covid-19 and recovered from it or have been vaccinated against coronavirus can enter Slovenia without restrictions.

The list of the groups that do not have to quarantine or produce a negative test upon entering Slovenia features a total of nine exceptions.

STA, 12 March 2021 - The government adopted a revised national vaccination strategy at a correspondence session on Friday, making some minor changes after it revised the document adopted on 3 December at the start of March. The strategy now says vaccines will be provided to all residents with permanent or temporary residence, not just to Slovenian citizens.

Soldiers were meanwhile added to the nine groups to be prioritised for vaccines together with police officers, while previously only soldiers leaving for missions abroad were on the priority list.

Earlier in the day, Slovenian Olympic Committee (OKS) secretary general Blaž Perko said the OKS would like Slovenian athletes who will go to the Tokyo Olympics to be vaccinated earlier than planned now.

Under the vaccination strategy, they are in group eight of the nine groups, meaning they will get a jab just before the games, he told the STA.

Perko believes this would be too late for the vaccine to be effective while posing a risk of "potential bodily reactions", so they would like Tokyo candidates to be placed at least at the level of diplomats.

"As ambassadors of the state, athletes represent the state at the international level, so they have to travel and thereby risk getting infected and transmitting the disease".

The strategy was also upgraded with the data about the vaccines in line with the information provided by the country's Agency for Medicinal Products.

What is more, the Oncology Institute in Ljubljana, the country's main cancer treatment centre, was added to the list of vaccination centres.

When the strategy was first revised on 1 March, it was announced that 61 vaccination centres were envisaged, including 13 in hospitals.

Today's revision was needed to bring the document in line with "certain new scientific circumstances related to the vaccines" and to harmonise it with the 7th anti-coronavirus stimulus package, the press release from the Government Communication Office said.

STA, 12 March 2021 - Weddings of up to 10 persons are permitted again across Slovenia bar the coastal Obalno-Kraška region, where the number of participants is capped at three or four persons, including the bride and groom, the Ministry of Labour, the Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities said on Friday.

Minister Janez Cigler Kralj has notified all the administration units in the country of the decree, the ministry said, adding that Covid prevention measures must be observed at weddings.

The red-coded Obalno-Kraška region remains the area with the worst epidemiological situation in Slovenia. Any gatherings are hence banned there, so the decree envisages a stricter protocol to be followed in the event of weddings.

The number of participants is capped at three, including the bride, groom and marriage officiant, or four persons if an interpreter is needed in line with the law.

Related: Explore Amazing Wedding Venues at Lake Bled

STA, 12 March 2021 - Exactly a year ago, a coronavirus epidemic was declared in Slovenia after the number of infections jumped to almost a hundred only a week after the first infection. Slovenia was in the epidemic for more than 60% of the last year.

The epidemic was declared by the then Health Minister Aleš Šabeder, who left the ministry the next day.

On the same day Slovenia closed its border with Italy, where the Covid-19 situation was the worst at the time.

The outgoing government also decided that schools on all levels close the next week and that only emergency cases be processed in healthcare.

Not long after that, the country went into a full lockdown to prevent further spreading of the virus, and people's lives changed drastically.

With strict measures and fear over a new, unknown virus, Slovenia was relatively successful in overcoming the first wave of the epidemic, which lasted 80 days, until 31 May.

In the autumn, however, the situation deteriorated again, and the epidemic was declared again on 19 October. Initially for 30 days but then this was extended multiple times to last until this very day.

In line with the latest government decision, adopted at Wednesday's session, the epidemic was extended for another 30 days, meaning until 18 March.

During last autumn and winter, children were mostly learning from home. Primary schools were closed for more than three months and secondary school students returned to their classrooms only recently.

Shops selling non-essential products were also closed for months and only the main services were available. Bars and restaurants are still closed, except for outdoor tables in two regions.

Slovenia has so far recorded almost 200,000 infections and 4,192 deaths due to Covid-19.

Experts are placing all hopes in the vaccines, striving for at least 60% vaccination rate in the population.

The first effective coronavirus vaccine was registered less than a year since the outbreak of the virus and so far four vaccines have been registered in the EU, the last one getting the green light this Wednesday.

However, despite enormous investments in the development of the vaccines, pharmaceutical companies have been unable to deliver enough vaccine for all citizens, so the vaccination strategy gives priority to the elderly, who are the most vulnerable group.

In Slovenia residents and staff of care homes, which have turned out to be the main hotspots of the disease, have already received the vaccine and people over 80 years old have been mostly inoculated too. As a result, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals has started to decline and the epidemiological situation seems to be finally improving.

Yet the future seems uncertain. Although the second wave of the epidemic is not over yet, a third wave is being predicted. Three of the new, highly contagious strains of coronavirus have so far been recorded in Slovenia and the British variant seems to be spreading exponentially in central Slovenia.

The latest data on COVID and Slovenia

STA, 11 March 2021 - A new shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Slovenia on Thursday, containing 14,400 shots, the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) told the STA. However, in the next couple of weeks, 100,000 doses fewer than planned will be supplied, the NIJZ added.

Initially, more than 153,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were expected this month but the NIJZ said today that together with the shots already supplied, the country would have received 45,860 doses this month, which means that fewer than 10,000 shots are expected in the next couple of weeks.

Several EU countries have meanwhile temporarily suspended vaccination with AstraZeneca as a precaution after reports of problems with blood clots following vaccination.

Asked whether Slovenia may also temporary stop using the vaccine, the NIJZ told the STA today that a vaccination task force must first decide on this and then report to the health minister.

NIJZ head Milan Krek told the press earlier in the day that a special commission comprised of experts was checking reports of any possible complications at the national level and reported of its findings to the European Medicines Agency.

When the Austrian commission reviews the reports of complications, it will be clear whether they were related to the vaccination. "Until then this is merely an assumption," he said.

The SVIZ trade union of teachers meanwhile insists that given worrying news from certain countries there should be an official statement on AstraZeneca safety. The vaccine is intended to be used for vaccination among school staff, which started this week, in line with the national inoculation strategy.

The trade union said it had received many inquiries by concerned members after media reported on health complications allegedly caused by AstraZeneca.

SVIZ hence called on the NIJZ to take a stand on the matter immediately. If there are any doubts regarding the vaccine's safety, SVIZ proposes a rethink on potential suspension of vaccination with AstraZeneca among school workers.

After Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended the rollout of the vaccine due to safety concerns, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said today that risk of blood clots in vaccinated people was no higher than in the general population.

In Slovenia, all complications processed by the relevant commission so far have turned out not to be related to Covid-19 vaccination.

STA, 11 March 2021 - Slovenia saw its average daily increase in coronavirus infections over the past seven days drop to 705 after another 860 people tested positive on Wednesday, as Covid-19 hospitalisations fell to 453. On the downside, ten more Covid-19 patient died, data released by the government show.

Of the 5,786 PCR tests performed yesterday, 14.9% came back positive. In addition, 25,741 rapid antigen tests were also performed.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 fell by further 32 to 453 after 29 new admissions and 51 discharges yesterday. Ninety patients required intensive care, two fewer than the day before.

The 7-day average of new cases dropped by 23 from the day before to 705. For the country to move to a lower, yellow tier of coronavirus restrictions the average would have to fall below 600 after Covid hospitalisations have already dropped below 500.

The cumulative 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents is at 496 and the 7-day at 255.

Commenting on the situation at the press briefing on Thursday, director of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) Milan Krek said Slovenia was still "deep in the epidemic", appealing to the public to stick to precautionary measures.

He noted the rising infection rates globally as a result of new coronavirus variants, assessing the countries were slowly descending into a new pandemic wave.

Despite the slow decline in transmissions in recent days, he said the curve was stagnating, expressing concern about a repeat of a similar situation in November when after a stagnation the curve started to climb up again at the end of last year.

Noting a slow increase in infections at schools, Krek said "additional measures might be needed if the situation deteriorates", but the goal was for pupils to finish school year in classrooms.

NIJZ data show that Slovenia has so far conformed 198,234 coronavirus cases, of which 10,445 are considered active infections.

Data from the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org show that a total of 3,918 Covid-19 patients have died.

However, NIJZ data released on Monday show that 4,156 patients with Covid-19 had died by Sunday, 7 March. Adding Monday's seven fatalities, Tuesday's four and Wednesday's ten to that figure, brings the death toll to 4,177.

The latest statistics on COVID and Slovenia