Slovenia confirmed 1,030 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, up from 937 reported on Friday, with Prime Minister Janez Jansa expressing concern about the latest spike in COVID-19 cases.

The virus is spreading faster because of the British variant and this requires additional caution, Janša wrote on Twitter. Unfortunately, this April will be similar to last year’s, when the country went into lockdown for several months, he added.

According to the latest figures provided by the Health Ministry, the weekly numbers of new cases have been increasing by between 15 and 25 percent, while compared with Friday, the rate of positive tests has increased from 17 to 18.2 percent. On the other hand, the number of active cases has dropped slightly, to 10,420, and the number of hospitalisations has decreased from 485 to 458.

With the data on infections in the last 24 hours, the weekly incidence has increased from 776 to 807 per 100,000 population.

Six infected people have died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 3,967.

A total of 179,351 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to date. The state leadership were administered the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday, and the vaccination of cabinet ministers and members of parliament has also begun.