Coronavirus death toll climbs to 43, confirmed cases reach 1,124
Ljubljana, 9 April - The coronavirus death toll in Slovenia has reached 43 as three people died on Wednesday. The number of confirmed infections rose by 33 to 1,124, show the latest government data.
Ljubljana
Mateja Logar from the Infectious Disease Clinic at UKC Ljubljana speaking to the press as part of UKC Ljubljana's media briefing.
Photo: Nik Jevšnik/STA
Ljubljana
Mateja Logar from the Infectious Disease Clinic at UKC Ljubljana speaking to the press as part of UKC Ljubljana's media briefing.
Photo: Nik Jevšnik/STA
Ljubljana
The Clinic of Infectious Diseases at the Ljubljana University Medical Centre (UKC Ljubljana) treating Covid-19 patients.
Photo: UKC Ljubljana
File photo
Ljubljana
The Department of Infectious Diseases at the Ljubljana University Medical Centre (UKC) treating Covid-19 patients.
Photo: UKC Ljubljana
Ljubljana
The Department of Infectious Diseases at the Ljubljana University Medical Centre (UKC) treating Covid-19 patients .
Photo: UKC Ljubljana
Zagreb, Croatia
Coronavirus test kit.
Photo: Hina/STA
Hospital data indicates the situation is stabilising, with hospitalisations and intensive care cases flat. A total of 108 persons were in hospital yesterday, of whom 34 in intensive care.
So far 128 persons have been released from hospital, eight of them yesterday, government spokesmen Jelko Kacin said.
Two groups stand out: infections have been confirmed in 225 residents of nursing homes and in 208 health workers, of whom 72 work in nursing homes.
The Šmarje pri Jelšah nursing homes, site of one of the first major outbreaks, remains a hot spot as 137 residents and staff have been infected.
The Slovenian government has not been releasing the details of the death cases for a while quoting protection of personal data, but at least in the early stages of the epidemic the vast majority of fatal cases were in retirement homes.
Kacin said today that there were "a lot of elderly people" among the fatalities.
Hospital data shows that the age structure of the infections is strongly skewed towards the older population. At UKC Ljubljana, all fatalities have been in patients over the age of 60 who had underlying health conditions.
The average age of those hospitalised is 68, with the majority falling in the 50-60 age bracket, Mateja Logar of the infectious diseases clinic told the press today.
Testing in Slovenia continues at roughly the same pace as 1,144 tests were performed yesterday, for a total of 31,813 since testing began.