Slovenia recorded 1,798 infections on a slightly scaled-down testing on Thursday, and another 23 fatalities among patients with Covid-19, the highest daily death toll yet, data from the government show.
A total of 6,368 tests were performed in Slovenia yesterday, just over a thousand fewer than the day before, when 2,488 came back positive. This means that the positivity rate fell to 28.23% from almost 35%.
Hospitalisations have risen to 703, from 660 the day before, and the number of patients requiring intensive care increased by 13 to 122, putting a further strain on hospitals. On the positive side, forty patients were discharged home yesterday.
With another 23 fatalities, the national Covid-related death toll has risen to 315.
The latest cases bring Slovenia’s case count to 32,503 and the number of active cases to 20,980, while the rolling 14-day average has increased to 1,001 per 100,000 residents, according to tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.
Commenting on the latest figures, Health Ministry State Secretary Tina Bregant said it was an “indication that the effect of the measures has kicked in”.
However, despite the fall in the test positivity rate, she said the rate was still “extremely high” so it was essential for everyone to keep sticking to the restrictions, which the government has extended for another week, for the country to come out of the woods.
She said the slow-down in the outbreak was not sufficient yet, while the real indication of when the effect of lockdown restrictions kicked in, would be when the situation began to improve in hospitals.
Thanking the hard-working health staff and everyone involved in the effort, she said they needed “all the support we can give them” as she appealed to everyone to bear with the restrictions and projected a “few more difficult days ahead”.
She would not say whether the extension of measures for a week would be enough, appealing for patience, which she said turned out to be as important as quick action in response to the pandemic.
Similarly, government spokesman Jelko Kacin said there was a “key race against the time” in hospitals at the moment as capacities are being expanded to be able to admit an expected surge in Covid-19 patients and save lives.
He said it was too early to say the situation was stabilising, so it was essential that people should stay at home and avoid any socialising whatsoever.