Coronavirus: Slovenia reports 35 new cases, 5 deaths

On Thursday, 1,193 persons were tested, bringing the total to 39,330, while the total number of Covid-19 patients has reached 1,304.

Ninety-five patients are hospitalised, including 28 in intensive care, and their number has been decreasing, government spokesman Jelko Kacin said at a press conference in Ljubljana, adding that the trends were positive and that the epidemic is under control.

To date 190 patients have been discharged from hospital, including eight on Thursday. The death toll has reached 66.

Infectologist Bojana Beovic, who heads the government's Covid-19 task force, said Slovenia "could say" it had put the epidemic under control, allowing the country to start thinking about its next steps.

She added that this is still not an exit strategy, but a transition into a state in which the epidemic would "smolder" in some communities, for example care homes, which account for most of the new cases and deaths.

She said that as more and more parts of the economy were being reactivated, social distancing and other measures would remain necessary.

Beovic said a number of Slovenian IT and mathematical institutions and experts had estimated that 10,000 people in Slovenia had been infected with the novel coronavirus but that only 350 were active carriers now, the rest having had only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

She said that testing of 1,000-1,500 people would begin next week to help the government decide on the further easing of measures imposed since the beginning of the epidemic.