In the past 24 hours, 333 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Slovenia, with 13.4% of the tests coming back positive, and there have been no deaths, but the authorities have again warned that the situation will deteriorate dramatically in the autumn unless more people are vaccinated.

“The situation is probably much more serious than we are willing to admit,” Health Minister Janez Poklukar told the press in Ljubljana on Friday after numbers have been jumping for more than two weeks.

He said that due to the more contagious variant, almost everyone who was not vaccinated would come into contact with the virus in the autumn.

“We fear that the unvaccinated will fill intensive care units to capacity and that we will again have to introduce unpopular measures to retain control in hospitals,” he said, adding that two hospitals would reopen COVID wards on Monday.

At the moment, 54 COVID patients are hospitalised, up from 42 a week ago, and 12 are in intensive care, the minister said.

He said the government had decided to start administering a third vaccine dose soon, first to those with weakened immune systems, and then to vulnerable groups, nursing home and medical staff, and teachers.