The latest cases come from 974 tests, and bring the combined tally to 2,208, of which 202 are active cases, as evident from the national tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

Twenty-two patients remain hospitalised with Covid-19, three of them in intensive care, after two were discharged home yesterday.

Three of Tuesday's cases were confirmed in Šmarje pri Jelšah, in the north-east, and two each in Ljubljana and Kranj. Ten more municipalities had one new infection each, while one was confirmed among foreign nationals.

New infections were confirmed in different parts of the country but there is no major hotspot, Mateja Logar of the Ljubljana clinic for infectious diseases told the press.

Most were secondary infections, which is expected in this phase of the epidemic, she noted.

A dozen Covid-19 patients are currently being treated at the Ljubljana clinic for infectious diseases, two of whom need intensive care. Two patients are expected to be discharged soon.

Logar stressed that not only elderly people needed hospitalisation and that the average age of the patients at the clinic who do not need intensive care was below 60.

She also said that recently the symptoms of patients that needed intensive care deteriorated more rapidly than in the first wave. There is no medical explanation for this yet, she said, adding that it could also be just a coincidence.