Ljubljana - Slovenia confirmed 1,558 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest daily figure since 2 February, as the share of positive tests continued to climb, exceeding 21% for the first time since mid-February, the latest government data show. Seven people with Covid-19 died.

Testing has been stepped up in recent days and the positive results came from over 7,200 PCR tests and over 24,000 rapid antigen tests.

There were 500 Covid-19 patients in hospital, down by 15 over the day before, whereas the number of ICU cases rose by six to 111.

The seven-day average of daily cases jumped to 996 and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents is now at 617.

Data tracker Covid-19 Sledilnik estimates there are now over 13,000 active cases in the country.

Slovenia has so far administered the first shot of one of the three approved coronavirus vaccines to over 240,000 people, almost 12% of the population, whereas almost 113,000 have received both shots, according to data by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Marta Grgič Vitek, the national vaccination coordinator, said Slovenia had so far received just over 400,000 shots of coronavirus vaccines and expected deliveries to pick on in April, when 335,000 shots are expected.

The majority of the population aged over 75 who wanted to get vaccinated have received their shots, but more are registering every week, according to her.

She expects the majority of vaccination centres to wrap up vaccination of those over 75 to focus on the 70-74 age group.