In the past 24 hours, Slovenia conducted 11,067 PCR tests, with 8,575 coming back positive to COVID, which is 77.2 percent, while another 11 people have died of the disease, Slovenia's institute for public health reported on Monday.

There were 3,640 more positive cases than the day before, however, that is not as dramatic an increase as had been recorded over the past few weeks. Seven days ago, 11,104 tests identified 8,396 new cases, a test positivity rate of 75.6%.

In the past 24 hours, 53,059 Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) were conducted, however, the share of positive cases has not been released as the results need to be confirmed with PCR tests.

The trend with numbers stagnating could be a sign that the situation is calming down.

Experts expect the peak of the fifth wave to occur over the next few days, however, they expect the number of hospitalised patients to continue to be high due to the Omicron variant being widespread in the population.

“There are currently 818 hospitalised COVID patients, which is 156 more than last week and 138 are in intensive care,” Health Minister Janez Poklukar said at a regular government press conference.

The seven-day daily average of infections in Slovenia has increased to 14,100 cases while the 14-day incidence is 8,174 per 100,000 population and the death toll has increased to 5,857.

Slovenia’s government announced that the new EU rules for COVID certificates would also apply in Slovenia as of 1 February.

Also, as of Tuesday, RAT tests will be sufficient to prove infection with COVID-19.