In the past 24 hours, Slovenia has registered 1,388 new cases of coronavirus and 45 people have died as a consequence of COVID-19, the most in one day so far, the country's government said on Tuesday.

A total of 5,326 tests were conducted with 26.06% resulting positive, which is lower than on Monday, when 501 new cases of the infection were registered and the percentage of those infected among those tested was 20% and 34 people died.

There are currently 1,275 hospitalised patients, 24 more than on Monday and 209 are in serious condition and in intensive care, the health ministry has said.

The latest number of infections brings the total number of people who have been infected with the disease since its outbreak to 56,932, with 19,537 currently active cases. The 14-day incidence rate is 932 per 100,000 population and the total number of deaths has increased to 932.

The opposition has criticised the government led by Janez Jansa, saying that it had introduced restrictions to prevent the virus from spreading too late. The government has extended a state of epidemic for an additional 30 days, which means it can introduce new measures or relax existing measures until December 17 without any special debate in parliament.

The latest measures include bans on gatherings apart from immediate family and a ban on movement outside one’s municipal boundaries and as well as an overnight curfew. Slovenia has also tightened its border regime.

Epidemiologists believe that the number of daily cases should start falling in about ten days, which should relieve some of the pressure on the country’s hospital system.