STA, 25 October 2020 - Slovenia celebrates Sovereignty Day, a national holiday commemorating the day when the last Yugoslav People's Army soldiers left the country's soil in 1991 in one of the key events in the process of Slovenia's independence. In their messages on the occasion, the country's top officials evoked the nation's courage, resolve and unity of the time.

Prime Minister Janez Janša, who served as the defence minister at the time of historic events, recalled the spirit of the time, the courage and unity. "History teaches us that nothing is impossible if we stand united as a nation."

"The courage, wise decisions and the Slovenian nation's unity and connectedness through a shared idea allowed us, despite political differences and adversity by some, to win an independent country that generations before us had but dreamed about," said Janša in his written message.

Today's holiday should be a reminder of how unity on a common goal can keep Slovenians strong as a nation, Janša wrote, calling for fostering an awareness that together the nation can defeat what appears to be invincible and achieve what seemed unimaginable only a day ago.

He said that Slovenia's sovereignty and the momentous events almost 30 years ago should not be taken for granted.

"Slovenia did not have allies to lean on in the War of Independence (...) We could only rely on ourselves - our knowledge, abilities, and our resolve to have our homeland. At the same time we also hoped for a little bit of God's blessing," said Janša.

Praising the emerging Slovenian Armed Forces, the Slovenian police and patriots, for defeating the Communist Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), and lauded the courage and bravery displayed at the time.

"It is with deep respect that we watch the footage of hour compatriots from the Vipava Valley and elsewhere taking on JNA tanks with naked fists," he said, adding that it took not just civic courage but also wisdom to defeat what at the time was considered the world's tenth most powerful army.

What made the effort even more noble and honourable was that the Slovenians attended to the wounded JNA soldiers on a non-discriminatory basis and did not take revenge on the aggressor soldiers "not even when they were departing with bowed heads", nor did the war result in a massive flight of refugees.

"This made our goal, the realisation of the Slovenian nation's plebiscite decision in favour of an independent and sovereign country even brighter and nobler. It will remain written down in history for ever as proof of the maturity of the Slovenian nation and the courage of its soldiers," said Janša.

Similarly, Parliamentary Speaker Zorčič remembered the courage and the commitment to the same goals and values displayed at the time, but he also called on the nation to demonstrate the same resolve, confidence, understanding, solidarity and unity in taking on the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that the Slovenians were being weakened in their fight against the unprecedented pandemic "not just by its underrating, but also by our disunity over the measures against it" and the creation of false impression by some that those measures were aimed at suppressing democracy.

"Today, we are fighting a new, invisible enemy that we will not surrender to. The uneasiness of masks will not move into our hearts. It is time that like 29 years ago we proved again our ability to be strong, confident, understanding and sympathetic," the speaker said in his message.

The public holiday, which is not a work-free day, was declared by the National Assembly in 2015 in remembrance of the day in 1991 when the last remaining Yugoslav Army soldiers departed from the port of Koper aboard a ship.

The withdrawal is considered one of the final steps in the independence efforts, coming after Slovenia declared independence on 26 June, whereupon the Ten-Day War broke out when the Yugoslav Army launched attacks from its barracks on 27 June.

The armed conflict was followed by talks which resulted in Slovenia agreeing to a three-month moratorium on independence implementation as part of what is known as the Brijuni Declaration.

As the moratorium was about to expire, Yugoslavia's authorities realised it would be impossible to keep Slovenia in the federation. Preparations thus started for the army's withdrawal from Slovenian territory.

The stated purpose of the holiday is to stress and emphasise the importance of Slovenia's sovereignty and to strengthen the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

There was no formal ceremony this year but President Borut Pahor address the people alongside the military commander of the Territorial Defence during the independence war, Janez Slapar, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Robert Glavaš.

STA, 25 October 2020 - Today is the first Sunday that almost all shops must remain closed in accordance with an amendment to the retail act that the National Assembly passed in late September.

The exemptions to the blanket ban include shops under 200 m2 at service stations, border crossings, ports, airports, train and bus stations, and hospitals.

Outside these facilities, shops with a surface area of under 200 m2 may open, but only shop owners, students and pensioners may work Sundays, regular employees may not.

The legislation was passed in a bid to give retail workers more free time and has been welcomed by retail trade unions.

Retailers, however, have said this may lead to massive layoffs as turnover declines. The Chamber of Commerce (TZS) said it would seek a constitutional review of the legislation.

Some retailers, including the country's no. 1 grocer Mercator, have decided to replace shop closures with Sunday deliveries of online orders.

The TZS said the retail act amendments limit the opening hours of shops but does not affect the working hours of employees.

The Economy Ministry has said that online sales were a type of remote commerce that is not covered by the retail act amendment.

Trade unions insist that this is an attempt to bypass the intention of the law, which is to give workers Sundays off.

STA, 24 October 2020 - Friday was a day of grim records in Slovenia's fight against the coronavirus. A record 7,025 tests were performed, with a record 1,961 coming back positive, pushing the positivity rate to a record 27.91%. Moreover, 19 people with coronavirus died yesterday, the highest daily death number yet.

While 17 people died in hospital, two more died in nursing homes, the Health Ministry said. This brought the total coronavirus death tally to 235.

The government initially said that 1,963 cases had been confirmed, this was later corrected by spokesman Jelko Kacin, who tweeted that 1,961 had been confirmed. He also said that they were still collecting information on deaths from nursing homes.

The number of active cases climbed to 13,021, according to tracker Covid-19.Sledilnik. 449 were in hospital, with 63 requiring intensive care, the Health Ministry said.

By far the highest number of active cases has been reported in Gorenjska (979), followed by Koroška (704) and central Slovenia (631), data from Covid-19.Sledilnik show.

Kacin also tweeted that the number of tests performed continues to increase and that the pressure on labs is immense. So far, 21,274 have been confirmed since testing began in spring.

Milan Krek, the director of the National Institute for Public Health (NIJZ), told the STA today the high figures do not come unexpected, while Bojana Beović, the head of the government Covid-19 task force, told Radio Slovenija they would climb higher still.

Krek said NIJZ had prepared for the second wave, increasing its capacities, so that epidemiologists are now able to call over 1,000 people a day.

Meanwhile, Beović said manner of testing may change in the future due to the high number of positive tests, "because this is impossible work", while hospitalisations provide an insight into what is happening.

She said the task force was not considering additional measures at this point because restrictions put in place recently should have to suffice.

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STA, 23 October 2020 - With a week-long closure of preschools starting on Monday and many parents trying to figure out how to combine work and childcare, Social Affairs Minister Janez Cigler Kralj said on Friday that the parents taking work days off to mind their children will be eligible to a compensation amounting to 80% of their salary.

Moreover, Education Minister Simona Kustec, said at the same press conference that parents would not be paying for childcare while their child was not in kindergarten.

She also appealed to mayors to make childcare available for parents who must work and have no other childcare possibility, adding that mayors understood the needs of their communities best.

Kustec expressed belief that people were aware of the severity of the situation and that only those in jobs that are vital to the state and the society would opt to bring their child to kindergarten.

Kindergartens and mayors will decide how they will be checking whether the childcare is really necessary for an individual child.

The minister said the decision to close kindergartens was made due to the doubling in the number of coronavirus cases among staff.

Kindergartens are to remain closed next week, during the autumn holiday for primary and secondary schools.

When asked whether children would return to brick and mortar schools after that, Kustec said this would be decided towards the end of next week. This is also when it would be decided whether kindergartens will reopen.

Asked about subsidised school meals for poor students, Kustec said that most children had access to these in the past week, when student beyond grade 5 of primary school had already been remotely schooled.

If the lockdown will stretch out for a longer period, then a system solution will have to be found for this issue, the minister said.

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STA, 23 October 2020 - A total of 1,656 cases of Sars-CoV-2 were confirmed in 6,745 tests in Slovenia on Thursday, and two people died in hospital, said government spokesman Jelko Kacin. The number of active cases reached 11,434, according to the Covid-19.Sledilnik tracker, which also shows a near-record test positivity rate of 24.55% and a daily death tally of three.

Meanwhile, 394 people needed hospital treatment, of whom 67 were in intensive care, Kacin said at a press conference on Friday.

The highest number of active cases by far is seen in the Gorenjska statistical region (867), followed by Koroška (636) and Central Slovenia (574).

The virus also continues to spread in nursing homes, both among staff and residents. Janez Cigler Kralj, the minister in charge of social affairs, said at the press conference that all nursing homes with Covid-19 patients had set up isolation wards, while all homes have a crisis plan prepared for the case of an outbreak.

Meanwhile, a number of nursing homes are moving coronavirus-positive residents to facilities that are physically separated.

The nursing home in Slovenj Gradec will be moving nearly 40 residents to the thermal spa Terme Topolšica, while infected residents of the Škofja Loka nursing home have already been moved to a nearby school gym.

The Radovljica nursing home will meanwhile be moving an entire department of staff who tend to the elderly living at home, to a nearby fire station.

Cigler Kralj said at the press conference that he visited the gym in Škofja Loka on Thursday. The decision to move infected residents to a gym has been met with some criticism over the past days, but the minister said the accommodation was appropriate.

With hotels also being a possible solution to provide additional beds for Covid-19 patients, Cigler Kralj said not all hotels were suitable for the care for Covid-19-infected nursing home residents, whose average age is 84 and 80% of whom are bedridden.

Also addressing the press conference, Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek said the government was in the final stages of talks with hotel operators, with many, above all thermal spas, promising to make available their capacities for Covid-19 patients. He said this would make several hundred beds available.

He also said that healthcare treatment, including physical therapy and similar services funded from public health insurance, which are frequently provided by hotels in thermal spas, remain allowed as of Saturday, when all other hotels and other similar facilities will have to close.

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STA, 23 October 2020 - The government has set more details regarding lockdown measures and exceptions to the ban on crossing Slovenia's statistical regions, as the whole country was declared a red zone on Thursday, including the coastal Obalno-Kraška region, the only one that was still orange-coded.

The government decided on Thursday that delivery of food, drinks, medications and basic necessities as well as room service will be allowed during curfew between 9pm and 6am. The curfew also does not apply for persons who are transiting the country or coming home from abroad.

The government also specified the rules for exceptions to the ban on crossing the regions for close family members, who can travel to another region together when going there to do maintenance or seasonal work on their property.

In line with the changed government decree, the exception applies for close family members such as a spouse, partner or a divorced spouse or partner who is paying alimony, their parents, legitimate or illegitimate child, adopted child or a child in the process of adoption, when they are travelling together.

The exception in place for providing care for a family member, now also applies for parenting and contacts with one's child.

On Saturday, Slovenia will go into a full lockdown for a week, meaning that hotels, shopping centres, and student dorms will close as well, with more details here.

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STA, 22 October 2020 - Slovenia will put in place new restrictions to limit the spread of coronavirus. Non-essential shops will be closed, as will hotels, kindergartens and student dormitories, with some exceptions, Prime Minister Janez Janša announced on Thursday. The measures, entering into force on Saturday, will initially be in place for a week.

The new measures come after wide-ranging restrictions, including a 9pm-6am curfew, an inter-regional movement ban, limited gatherings, remote education for most children, the closure of bars, and mandatory masks outdoors were already introduced in the past week.

While non-essential shops are closing, delivery, including from restaurants, will still be allowed. Kindergartens, which Janša says were closing to due a significant rise in infections among staff, will still be available for children whose parents work and cannot secure daycare, but Janša also called on employers to switch to work from home if only possible.

Student homes will be closing for all who do not have other accommodation next week, while public transport will be scaled down to a third of full capacity.

The border regime is not changing and transit will continue to be allowed, with Janša saying that no noteworthy import of the virus from other currently was presently being recorded.

While no additional restrictions are being introduced for sports activities - top-level competitions continue, while recreational sport is already mostly restricted to individual activities -hair and beauty salons are closing down.

The prime minister, who urged compliance with protective measures and stressed that Slovenia already braved such circumstances in the spring, explained that the situation would be re-evaluated after a week.

He noted that the option to limit movement to municipalities like was the case in the spring was still on the table. The government will decide on it in the coming days.

Janša said that daily confirmed Covid-19 cases continued to rise and would for a while, which is why it was too early to say whether the measures adopted recently would be enough to contain the spread.

He said the option of mass testing was being examined as well, first for high-risk groups and in the weeks after that for the entire population.

Janša announced that a taskforce is already drawing up gudilines for a new stimulus package and that the measures would be similar to those seen in the spring.

He said that next week, when the autumn holidays are scheduled for school children, will be "the week of the fight to stop the spread of the virus among us".

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STA, 20 October 2020 - Slovenian filmmakers have made an urgent appeal to the government, the head of state and Human Rights Ombudsman in a bid to have the government release the approved funding for films, some of which have already been made but those working on them have still not been paid.

In an appeal sent out of Monday, the Association of Slovenian Filmmakers (Filmski producenti Slovenije) calls for an end to "the blockade of Slovenian cinematography", warning that the chronic lack of funding and the coronavirus pandemic is making the alarming state of the film industry worse by the day.

The reason for the situation is the hold-up of funds approved in the state budget for 2019 and 2020 under the previous government and confirmed in the revised budget for 2020 under the current government: "Those are payments based on contracts signed between the Slovenian Film Centre (SFC) and producers in 2018 and 2019, which the Culture Ministry has endorsed and put forward for confirmation by the government."

The appeal notes that the Culture Ministry put forward three claims for funds to the government between 13 March and 31 August, one for EUR 837,995, which was endorsed in early April, one for EUR 536,873 to fund ten projects in 2020 and 2021, and one for EUR 2.62 million for 21 projects this year and the next.

The association notes that work on most of the projects started a while ago and that some films had already been shot in 2019 or early this year, while some, in particular co-productions, have already had successful international releases.

"What they all have in common is that the creators and other workers have not yet been paid for the work they have done (even as far back as November 2019) and that ongoing projects cannot be completed because of the hold-up in funding," reads the appeal.

The SFC has managed to get less than one-fifth of the funds approved in the 2020 budget.

As a result film production planned for this year is all but on hold, as is most of pre-production and production for at least next two years, while most of those who have worked on 31 projects for which payments have been suspended have not been paid since November 2019.

Many of those have ended up without their livelihoods: even those who applied for a basic monthly income allowance, have been approved aid for two months and a half at the most, reads the release.

Furthermore, the filmmakers note that no new calls for projects have been published and even some of those published last year have not been completed yet, while the second wave of coronavirus is taking further toll on the audiovisual sector.

Unless the government approves funds already committed at the next session, the filmamkers plan to notify relevant international institutions.

STA, 22 October 2020 - Slovenia's coronavirus tally soared to another daily record on Wednesday as 1,663 infections were confirmed in a record 6,215 tests, show fresh government data. The test positivity rate remained above 25%. Nine Covid-19-related fatalities were recorded.

Initially it was reported that five persons infected with coronavirus died yesterday, however the government later tweeted that there were nine fatalities.

Hospitalisation numbers continue to rise as well. There were 357 patients in hospital yesterday, 24 more than on Tuesday, including 62 in intensive care, up by seven. A total of 32 were discharged home.

Data from the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org show that there are currently 10,136 active cases in the country. The incidence rate, the average number of cases per 100,000 residents over the past fortnight, is 484.

Gorenjska remains the statistical region with the highest incidence rate, 759, followed by Koroška and central Slovenia, heard today's government briefing.

The coastal Obalno-Kraška region, the only one still to be orange-coded, has had the lowest incidence rate, however the situation is worsening there as well. The incidence rate there is currently 131, nine points short of the threshold for red-listing the region.

Matjaž Jereb, head of the intensive care unit at the Department of Infectious Diseases at the UKC Ljubljana hospital, said via videolink that estimates show there are currently 15,000-20,000 active cases in Slovenia.

He pointed out that apart from rising hospitalisation figures, a major issue was also the virus spreading among healthcare staff. More than 100 health workers are infected at UKC Ljubljana, a ballpark figure, he said.

Jereb believes that a steep curve of new cases is a result of prevention measures being flouted and a critical mass of the infected surpassed.

Responding to Health Minister Tomaž Gantar's suggesting a complete lockdown to contain the epidemic, Jereb said the measure was an unpopular course of action due to its ramifications, however he believes "it would likely solve the problem".

He also commented on Slovakia's plan to test the entire population, deeming it impractical including due to limited lab capacities. He highlighted that heeding precaution measures was vital.

When it comes to the option of treating patients outside hospitals, in makeshift facilities, during extreme situations, Jereb said that would not be a wise decision in case of severely ill patients, however it could serve the purpose for less serious cases.

There has been some unclarity as to the number of Covid-related fatalities for Tuesday with the Health Ministry and tracker site data showing ten fatalities, while government spokesman Jelko Kacin and the government tweet yesterday reported eight deaths for the previous day.

The tracker site shows five fatalities rather than nine fatalities for Wednesday, so the overall death toll is not clear; tracker site has 207.

Germany puts all but one Slovenian region on red list

STA, 22 October 2020 - Germany has expanded its list of international risk areas, travellers from where need to undergo a 14-day quarantine, adding the Slovenian regions of Posavje and Goriška to leave only one Slovenian region out of the list.

As of Saturday, Posavje and Goriška will be on the list together with all other Slovenian regions except the Coastal-Karst region in the south west.

Germany started putting Slovenian statistical regions on the red list on 23 September, and updated it once more at the beginning of October.

Travellers coming to Germany from these regions may shorten their two-week quarantine by producing a negative test for Covid-19.

Germany's red list is determined by the federal ministries of health, interior and foreign affairs following opinions of the Robert Koch Institute based on the latest incidence data, as well as other criteria.

As of Saturday, all regions of Poland and Switzerland will also be on the list, as well as entire Austria with the exception of the state of Carinthia. Many other countries and regions have also been red-listed by Germany.

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