There are currently 22 patients in hospital, up from 19 the day before, as two were discharged from hospital and five new patients were admitted. The number of patients in intensive care remained at three.

According to the national Covid-19 tracker site, there are now 238 active cases out of the total of 1,977 cases recorded since the state of the pandemic.

Most of the latest cases, six, were recorded in Hrastnik in central Slovenia, where an outbreak has been reported at a care home.

Monday was the third day in a row that a fatality was recorded. Before that there had been no confirmed Covid-19-related deaths for over a month and a half.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) warned today the bulk of the infections in recent days were locally transmitted, after an initial surge in imported cases that triggered the renewed rise in infections in late June and early July.

Of the 104 confirmed cases last week, only two were imported.

Epidemiologist Nuška Čakš Jager told the press several hotspots were currently active, the virus having spread not only at retirement homes but also at parties, weddings and in several companies.

She said epidemiologists were still able to trace contacts of the newly infected persons but were close to reaching their limits.

Infections are now increasing among the older population yet again, making it more likely that the newly infected will require hospital treatment.

Infections disease specialist Mateja Logar of the UKC Ljubljana hospital said Slovenia was "far from having everything under control" given that the virus keeps spreading in municipalities that had been coronavirus-free in the first wave.

Hrastnik is emerging as the biggest hotspot at the moment, with 18 residents and seven staff members of the local elderly care home infected.

Seven residents were moved across country to the general hospital in Nova Gorica today, but the management and staff are worried because the home does not have enough capacity to treat all those who have been infected in-house.

"We believe that all infected residents should be removed from the home. But the health care policy states that only those requiring intensive care be hospitalised," care home boss Drago Kopušar told the press in a statement.

Today, a team from the UKC Maribor hospital which worked at the Ljutomer elderly care home during the first wave visited the Hrastnik care home, with Kopušar expressing expectation that the team will provide concrete solutions on how to separate the ill and the healthy residents and staffing solutions.

He said that the 75-strong staff had become overworked since the first infection was detected on 10 July in the home with 128 residents, adding that additional 10 health care staff were needed.