Record 123 new Covid-19 cases confirmed in 3,123 tests on Tuesday

Ljubljana, 16 September - A record 123 new Covid-19 cases were discovered in Slovenia on Tuesday as 3,123 persons were tested for the coronavirus, the second highest testing figure to date. There were no deaths, but the number of active cases has risen to 975, shows the official data, released on Wednesday.

Maribor
Marko Slavič, director of the Danica Vogrinec Home for the Elderly, the biggest in Slovenia, presenting the coronavirus situation at the care home's Tabor unit.
Photo: Andreja Seršen Dobaj/STA
File photo

Maribor
The Danica Vogrinec Home for the Elderly, the largest home of its kind in Slovenia, with a total of some 800 beds.
Photo: Andreja Seršen
File photo

Postojna
Sandi Curk, the chief of Civil Protection in the Notranjska region, south-west.
Photo: Rosana Rijavec/STA
File photo

Črneče
The Home for the Elderly in the town of Črneče, the largest care home of its kind in the region of Koroška, north.
Photo: Vesna Pušnik Brezovnik/STA
File photo

The number of hospitalised patients is up by 12 to 61 and the number of those in intensive care by one to 11.

The number of total cases confirmed since the first one was discovered on 4 March stands at 3,954 and the number of deaths at 135, with the last fatality recorded almost two weeks ago.

Public broadcaster TV Slovenija reported last evening that 16 new cases were recorded in Pivka, a small municipality in south-west which tightened protective measures already on Monday as the first municipality to do so in the second wave of epidemic.

This puts the total number of active cases in the municipality at 50, of whom 31 are workers of food-processing company Pivka Perutninarstvo, one of the country's current hotspots.

Civil Protection head for the Notranjska region Sandi Curk told the STA last evening the new cases were recorded at the Pivka Primary School and Pivka Perutninarstvo.

From today, three school employees and 39 pupils are at home, which includes the 35 pupils quarantined already two days ago.

Curk said national and local authorities were in talks to set up an ad-hoc unit to enable faster processing of potentially infected people to refer them to testing.

The situation at the elderly home in Črneče in Koroška region, north, has also not stabilised yet, with 16 cases confirmed so far, of which 12 in residents.

Director Srečko Mlačnik told the STA all the infected cases are from the same unit, with two of the infected residents being taken to hospital.

The unit - now classified as a grey zone - is separated from the rest of the care home, while the ten infected residents are accommodated at the red zone.

The four infected employees are self-isolating, so Mlačnik fears a lack of staff at what is the biggest home for the elderly in Koroška, with 263 beds.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has meanwhile calmed down at another hotspot, the Danica Vogrinec Home for the Elderly in Maribor, north-east, where a Covid-19 outbreak took place at the start of last week.

There are now 42 infected persons, of whom 25 residents and 17 staff, but director Marko Slavič said that only one in 200 tests performed this week came back positive.

"We are happy to note a downward trend in new infections," he said on Wednesday.

However, since 30 staff have been quarantined, the care home's Tabor unit lacks more than half of its staff, who are now working in extremely hard conditions.

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© STA, 2020