The government has extended by seven days the closure of shops selling non-essential goods and the ban on cultural events, its Covid-19 spokesman Jelko Kacin said on Thursday. It will decide whether to extend other measures, such as the night curfew or the movement between municipalities, at a correspondence session on Friday.

The National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food, which is part of the network of institutions monitoring flu and other respiratory infections, is planning to check samples from previous seasons to see whether the novel coronavirus may have circulated in Slovenia before the first infection was confirmed on 4 March this year.

The group around the drug maker Krka generated EUR 1.16 billion in sales revenue in the first nine months of the year, which is 6% more than in the same period last year. Net profit was up by 22% to EUR 210.14 million. Sales were up the most in east Europe, where the most revenue was generated.

Slovenia has logged more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day running as a further 45 patients with Covid-19 have died, bringing the death toll to 964.

The Slovenian men's football team eked out a goalless draw with Greece in Athens on Wednesday evening to earn promotion from the third to the second tier of the UEFA Nations League.

Parliament passed the budgets for 2021 and 2022, which bring record expenditure of EUR 13.5-12.6 billion and record investments amid the coronavirus pandemic. The opposition expressed concern over how increasing expenditure would be financed and the debt, raised to fund hefty stimulus measures, repaid even if the deficit is to fall gradually.

Efforts to coordinate the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the deadlock in the bloc's EUR 1.8 trillion recovery package in the wake of Poland's and Hungary's blockade will top the agenda as EU leaders, including Slovenian PM Janez Janša, are meeting for an online summit on Thursday.