In the past 24 hours, 509 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Slovenia, and according to incidence the country is entering the red zone, but the authorities are more concerned with a growing number of hospitalised patients whose number has doubled when compared to a week ago.

With 509 or 17.3% of the 2,932 tests coming back positive, Slovenia’s infection rate has gone up significantly. A week ago, the country logged 318 new cases, with 15.5% of tests coming back positive, the authorities said.

The number of active cases is 4,275, with 105 patients requiring hospital care, which is 16 more than yesterday and nearly twice as many than last week when 56 COVID patients were hospitalised, the health ministry said.

The 14-day incidence per 100,000 population rose to 202.8 which means that Slovenia will move to the red zone on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) map.

So far, 42.2% of the population has been fully vaccinated, or 890,610 people.

The authorities keep urging people to get vaccinated.