Prime Minister Janez Janša presented some encouraging news as Slovenia fights the coronavirus crisis, saying some of those who had fallen ill with Covid-19 have recovered and have been discharged from hospital. What is more, the condition of the first patient who needed a ventilator has improved so that they can now breath on their own.
“The fact that someone tests positive for the virus does not automatically mean they will end up in intensive care,” he said optimistically on Thursday, noting these encouraging developments showed the disease was manageable.
Nevertheless, he reiterated the capacities of the country’s healthcare were limited so the system would be unable to cope with too big an increase in patients in need of a ventilator, urging people yet again to act in a self-protective manner.
The government has taken a number of measures to contain the virus, but “no measure, no law and no decree can do more than us being aware of having to protect own health and the health of other people”, Janša said as he spoke to the press after meeting the president and heads of the lower and upper chambers of parliament.
The prime minister also said several dozen medical staff were infected, so the ability to keep the healthcare system going as the number of coronavirus patients rises would be put to a test in the coming weeks.
He praised those companies in Slovenia which have launched the production of protective face masks at a time when there is a global shortage of them, including for those fighting the virus “on the first front line”.
He also thanked those countries which had helped Slovenia with protective equipment when no country had enough of it. “When practically all sewers of protective masks are concentrated at one point on the Earth, let this epidemic teach us a lesson that such a situation should not repeat ever again.”