After spending three months at home, about 53,000 Slovenian pupils in the first three years of primary school returned to their classrooms on Tuesday, as did almost 75,000 kindergarten children, in nine of Slovenia's 12 provinces with a better epidemiological situation.

On Monday, most of the school staff was tested for coronavirus and testing will continue today. About 1.3% tests have come back positive and these employees will not return to their schools. School and kindergarten staff will be tested every Monday and the government will adopt new decisions on the education regime each week, depending on the epidemiological situation.

In the past 24 hours 1,652 new coronavirus cases and 27 COVID deaths have been confirmed in Slovenia. Over 35,000 tests were conducted. Positive PCR tests are increasing again, with 24.4% coming back positive.

Prime Minister Janez Janša said the decline in new infections stopped recently, possible due to the appearance of the British strain. He did not rule out the reinstatement of tighter restrictions.