Slovenia has registered 1,084 new cases of coronavirus and 27 fatalities in the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday while the government believes the epidemiological situation is improving.

Slovenia has registered 46,709 positive cases since the outbreak of the epidemic and currently there are 21,097 active Covid-19 cases while 605 people have died as a consequence.

The incidence rate over a period of two weeks is 1,007 per 100,000 population.

Although the percentage of positive cases has decreased, the number of people requiring hospital treatment is continuing to grow. There are currently 1,171 patients in hospital treatment, 19 more than on Monday and 196 of these patients are in intensive care.

The government’s Covid spokesman, Jelko Kacin, expressed optimism that the second wave of the epidemic is calming down.

In the past 24 hours there were 24.32% positive cases, which is little higher than on Monday, however, that percentage is one-tenth of the percentage two weeks ago, said Kacin.

“The new numbers are relatively favourable and the positive trend is continuing,” he said, adding that some other graphs too indicate that the epidemiological situation is improving.

Dissent in government over measures

Slovenian media on Tuesday, however, reported that of a total of 4,457 tests for coronavirus conducted in the past 24 hours, 1,048 were positive, which is more than double the number on the previous day.

The percentage of positive cases is still about 24%, which is why the government is relatively optimistic that the peak of the second wave of the epidemic has passed, media outlets reported.

However, there is some dissent in the government as to whether restrictions should be relaxed or not or perhaps even ramped up.

According to POP-TV, Health Minister Tomaz Gantar advocates more stringent measures and has even said he would step down if the current restrictions are relaxed.

Economy Minister Zdravko Pocivalsek is opposed to more stringent measures saying they would cause huge economic damage while Prime Minister Janez Jansa said that the current measures need to be strictly adhered to and that new measures are not required.