The number of new Covid cases in Slovenia is continuing to rise and the government has activated an additional three hospitals to cater for the growing number of hospitalized cases.

In the past 24 hours, a restricted number of tests was conducted over the weekend, revealing 143 new cases, a share of 16.1%, while one patient has died.

There are currently 141 hospitalized Covid patients and 27 of them are in intensive care, including 15 on ventilators, the government reported on Monday.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, there are 5,158 active cases in the country and the average number of new cases per day in the past week was 427 while the 14-day incidence is 244 cases per 100,000 population, 44 cases more than the threshold set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to classify a country as a high-risk area.

Epidemiologists are expected to propose to the government today that hospital occupancy be taken as the main criterion for the introduction of new restrictions this autumn.

Prime Minister Janez Jansa is unhappy with the rate of vaccination in the country, with about 43% of the population having been vaccinated, which is a lot less than in some other Western European countries.

Jansa tweeted on Monday that the government could abolish the epidemiological restrictions in force only after 70% of the population has been vaccinated, as has been done by Denmark and Great Britain.