Slovenia's Public Health Institute is launching a new vaccination campaign, as people are still suspicious of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the vaccination of the older population remains insufficient. At the same time, the epidemic in the country is continuing to wane.

The aim of the latest campaign is to inoculate 80 percent of the elderly population, said Jelko Kacin, who is responsible for the vaccination campaign in the country. He added that there are sufficient quantities of vaccine available now, including AstraZeneca, which he said is efficient and safe.

He said that Slovenia is still administering the AstraZeneca vaccine despite the fact that the European Commission has decided that it will not extend its contract with that company.

A survey of 1,042 respondents indicated that if Slovenian citizens were able to choose which vaccine they would receive, only 31 percent of them would want AstraZeneca, which is half of those who would want to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

So far, 23.2 percent of the population in Slovenia has been inoculated and the epidemiological situation is continuing to improve.

Government considering relaxing anti-pandemic measures

In the past 24 hours, 491 new cases of the coronavirus were registered, which is half the number of seven days ago when there were 894 new cases. The percentage of positive cases is 13.5 percent.

The number of active cases has decreased by 3.5% on the day and there are currently 8,632 active cases, Slovenia’s health ministry has reported.

There are currently 477 hospitalised COVID patients and 131 of them are in intensive care units while 3 people died in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s death toll to 4,299.

The seven-day average of new cases has decreased by 553 and the government is considering relaxing some epidemiological measures.