Over the past week, 390 new coronavirus cases were registered in Slovenia, almost twice as many as the week before, prompting epidemiologists to warn of potential risks, notably the spread of the Delta variant.

Epidemiologist Nuska Caks-Jager of the Slovenian Public Health Institute again warned about almost 700 Slovenian high school seniors, among whom 154 infections have been confirmed, most likely with the Delta variant, after their return from a trip to Spain.

Epidemiologists do not recommend travelling to countries where that variant is becoming prevalent.

Recently there have been many imported cases of the Delta variant in people returning mostly from Spain, but also from Croatia and other destinations, Caks-Jager said.

According to Jozef Stefan Institute, that variant could soon become prevalent in Slovenia as last week twice as many samples were positive to it than the week before.

Epidemiologist Mateja Logar estimates that Delta accounts for 20-28% of new infections.

The government said today that 84 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours and that 4.6% of the tests came back positive, up from 2.1% the day before. There were no deaths.

The seven-day average of infections has risen to 61 and the 14-day incidence to 29 per 100,000 population.

On the other hand, COVID hospitalisations are decreasing and stand at 39, including ten patients in intensive care.