"Despite our warnings that most care homes are without even basic conditions to implement full isolation, the Health Ministry has failed to secure an appropriate location, or several of them, for isolation outside of nursing homes," the association wrote.

The ministry continues to demand that the care homes set up three separate zones, which the association feels is not possible in most cases, as most care homes lack the basic spatial, technical, staff and other resources for this.

The association claims that isolating Covid-19 patients within homes is not only inappropriate and ineffective but also at odds with the law, which requires isolation in a healthcare institutions with a high level of protection.

Thus, the association insists that the only way to confine the spread is immediately isolating patients outside their care home and doing so not with constant improvisation but systemic solutions.

According to the association, the Vipava care home, where nine elderly residents and seven staff are now infected, is a case in point, showing it was not possible to swiftly secure the additional staff, locations with equipment and expert teams needed for full isolation.

Meanwhile, an expert team from the nearby Šempteter hospital begged to differ today as far as the Vipava care home is concerned, saying after a visit that the solutions at the home were appropriate and that a transfer to hospital was not necessary.

"We're still fully at their disposal with our knowledge, we will visit the Vipava home every day and provide help," the hospital's medical director Dunja Savnik Winkler told the press, while explaining that a Covid-19 unit was ready at the hospital for the event that other nursing homes would need assistance.