In the past 24 hours, there have been 199 new coronavirus infections in Slovenia, a drop from the previous day, when there were 248 new cases, however, experts are worried that the number of hospitalizations could rise significantly in the autumn.

There are currently 42 hospitalized Covid-19 patients, almost twice as many as at the same time last year.

“We have reason for concern even though the situation today is different because we have the vaccine, however, with the current pace of vaccination we will have 60% of the population inoculated with at least one dose only at the end of October, which is not enough to prevent a new wave,” Dr Janez Zibert of the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine told Slovenian Television on Friday.

He noted that it was likely that up to 1,000 people could be in hospitals for Covid-19 in the autumn, with one in five in intensive care, adding that the number of fatalities would be lower than in the second wave last year owing to vaccination.

The 199 new infections were confirmed after 1,841 tests, which is 10.8% of positive cases.

The weekly average of new infections is 165, the 14-day incidence is 94 per 100,000 population, and 40.1% of the total population has been fully vaccinated.

There were no new fatalities in the last 24 hours and the death toll stands at 4,433.