Possible new waves of the coronavirus epidemic in Europe will be milder and epidemiological rules will be more significantly relaxed in the countries that have a vaccination rate of more than 80%, Slovenian epidemiologist Andrej Trampuz, who works at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, said on Tuesday.

Trampuz warned that countries like Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia have a relatively low vaccination rate when compared to Germany and other Western European countries, pointing to the importance of having a high vaccination rate.

“This summer testing will probably be suspended because the pandemic will be officially declared over and testing will no longer be of relevance,” the expert said in an interview with the Slovenian Planet TV, noting that countries with high vaccination rates will have the advantage in terms of the risk of new variants, particularly if most people also get a booster dose.

In the past 24 hours, 11,098 new infections have been confirmed in Slovenia. The number of new infections has continued to fall, as has the number of active cases, which now stands at 186,078, which is 1,685 fewer cases than on Monday.

So far 1,214,000 people or 57.6% of the total population have been vaccinated. A total of 804 people are hospitalised, including 141 who require intensive care.

Another 19 people have died in the past 24 hours, which puts the COVID-19 death toll at 6,009.