491 new cases confirmed on Monday for a 45% weekly drop

Ljubljana, 11 May – A total of 491 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in 3,642 PCR tests on Monday, a 45% drop compared to the week before, while the rolling seven-day average is down to 549, which means Slovenia can enter the milder, yellow tier of restrictions. Three Covid-19 patients died, government figures show.

The positivity rate for yesterday’s tests was 13.5%, slightly up from the day before.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 is back below 500, as 477 are hospitalised today, of whom 131 are in intensive care, down two compared to Monday. A total of 54 people were discharged from hospital.

According to the National Institute for Public Health (NIJZ), the current number of active cases in Slovenia is 8,621.

As the seven-day average is below 600 and the number of hospitalised patients below 500, Slovenia has met the conditions for relaxation of measures under the milder, yellow tier.

Government spokesperson Maja Bratuša said at the daily coronavirus briefing that while there was a noticeable downward trend in the occupancy of hospital beds, the number of patients in intensive care remained a cause for concern.

As for Slovenia entering the yellow tier, Bratuša said that the government would discuss this with the Covid-19 advisory group on Wednesday.

Epidemiologist Irena Grmek Košnik of the Kranj unit of the NIJZ confirmed that the group had proposed a relaxation of restrictive measures, but she did not reveal any details.

While the overall picture is improving, there are significant differences between regions, as for instance the seven-day average of confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Primorsko-Notranjska is twice as high as in Posavje.

Leon Cizelj of the Jožef Stefan Institute noted that the average daily number of confirmed cases was 550 for the first time since last October, and the estimated actual daily number of infections is 2,000.

Since 1 April, the basic reproduction number has dropped from 1.2 to 0.85, he said, adding that the 11-day circuit breaker lockdown at the beginning of April played the key role.

Cizelj expects that the number of hospitalised patients will continue to drop, which is connected with vaccination, as currently around 50,000 people in Slovenia become immune to Covid-19 due to vaccination each week.

According to him, the green tier of restrictions could be reached – if the current trends continue – at the beginning of summer, but this is still difficult to predict precisely.

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