Bojana Beović, who heads the Health Ministry's medical task force for coronavirus, said the easing would depend on when the health authorities determine that the epidemic is tailing off.

While data on new infections over the Easter weekend is encouraging, it is premature to say whether the epidemic is "being gradually extinguished," she said.

Apart from a convincing slow-down in the epidemic, one that has lasted for at least a few days, other conditions that would need to be fulfilled for a relaxation include a sufficient availability of testing to detect as many cases as possible before they could break out into new hot spots.

Beović said that Slovenia lacked infectious disease experts to detect every new case or outbreak, analyse and contain it, so "we're placing much hope in modern technology that will be able to alert us of contacts".

Speaking of a mobile contact tracking app designed to notify individuals that they have been in contact with an infected person, Beović said the app would not collect any other personal data as the authorities were aware of the importance of personal data protection.

Asked which portions of society would open first, Beović said nothing had been decided yet but the first segments to reopen were likely to be activities that involve no or minimal contact between people.

Government coronavirus spokesman Jelko Kacin said the government was considering at least partial lifting of the ban on movement between municipalities and allowing certain sports activities, but only after the conditions allowed that.

"We're also considering outdoor sporting activities that allow a safe distance between those engaged (...) it could be tennis, badminton, golf, cycling," Kacin illustrated.

"However, any larger public events, sporting or other, are not to be expected anytime soon," he said, adding that he was not listing relaxations of any particular restrictions, merely offering a line of thinking what could happen.

The government will decide on concrete relaxation of measures on Thursday.

While the number of officially confirmed coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1,220 as of Monday, Beović said rough estimates put the actual number between 3,000 and 4,000. A study will try to estimate the number of infected who have not seen a doctor based on a population sample.