STA, 17 July - As of Friday Montenegro and Luxembourg are on Slovenia's red list of Covid-19 highly risky countries given their epidemiologic status. Croatia has meanwhile remained on the yellow list, which indicates a higher level of caution is advised, said the government on Thursday after a correspondence session.
Poland and the UK have been placed on Slovenia's green list of Covid-19 safe countries after the government was acquainted with a National Public Health Institute (NIJZ) report on the epidemiologic situations in member states, most notably Italian regions, Schengen area countries and Western Balkans countries.
Apart from Montenegro and Luxembourg, China, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Honduras, Israel, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, Colombia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Azerbaijan, Iraq, the Virgin Islands, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, Seychelles, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Eswatini and Suriname have been removed from the yellow list and moved to the red list.
A country is on the yellow list if it’s not on the red or green lists. You can see the most up-to-date lists on the police site, in English, here - noting that this story was pubished 17 July, 2020
If a person regardless of their citizenship enters Slovenia coming from one of the countries on the red list, they are put in a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Exemptions apply in certain cases.
As of Friday, Slovenia's list of Covid-19 safe countries has seen additions of Poland, Australia, Georgia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Uruguay, San Marino, Vatican City and Morocco (all previously on the yellow list).
Certain countries have acquired or retained their status as a Covid-19 safe country even though their epidemiologic situation has slightly exceeded 10 infections per 100,000 citizens in a 14-day incidence period. The exceptions have been granted because cases are trending upward only slightly, epidemiologic data is reliable and coronavirus imports from those countries into Slovenia have been rare or non-existent.
Therefore, Austria, Belgium, France, Spain and the Czech Republic remain on the green list, whereas Canada, Monaco (both previously on the yellow list), as well as Andorra and the UK (both previously on the red list) have been moved to the green list.
Meanwhile, Iceland has been removed from Slovenia's list of Covid-19 safe countries.
Interior Minister Aleš Hojs announced at today's government coronavirus briefing that Slovenia would introduce a new model for categorising countries according to the level of safety regarding coronavirus contagion.
The limit of 10 coronavirus cases per 100,000 citizens in the past fortnight will not be amended, however the new model will put more focus on determining the source countries of infections recorded in Slovenia and the distance between the country in question and Slovenia.
Hojs also presented changes to the border policy under which people ordered to quarantine could enter Slovenia at any border crossing with Croatia as of Monday. Police officers will be the ones serving the quarantine orders on the border and inland under the new decree.
The authorities are striving to ensure the orders are issued and served as soon as possible, said Hojs, adding that even if the order was potentially served at a later time, the individual had still been informed of the mandatory quarantine measure.
On Thursday, more than 300 quarantine orders were served on the border and only 22 inland, the minister said.
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