Slovenia has confirmed over 12,000 new cases of Covid-19 over the last 24 hours on Wednesday, setting a new all-time high.

Local media reported that around 5,000 samples collected for PCR testing haven’t been processed yet due to limited testing capacities, meaning that the actual case count is probably even higher.

Croatian state agency Hina cited “unofficial data” released by the local media on Wednesday, which put the daily case count at 12,019 – about 60 percent up from 7,433 reported seven days ago. Prime Minister, Janez Jansa, confirmed on his Twitter account that the daily number of infections has indeed surpassed the 12,000 mark.

Senior official at the Ministry of Health, Franc Vindisar, said that under the new testing protocol that came into force today, PCR tests would be used only to confirm positive rapid antigen tests, in order to relieve the burden of thousands of tests processed daily at laboratories.

Slovenia’s new quarantine rules also came into force today. Employees from the state-run health, social welfare, and education services no longer have to go into isolation after being into contact with an infected person. Instead, they are required to take rapid antigen tests every day for the next seven days following last contact, and also wear FFP2 face masks at their workplace, as they are considered more effective at preventing infection.