Ljubljana - Prime Minister Janez Janša said in parliament on Monday the government would like to know the Constitutional Court's decision on introducing the PC reconvalescent-vaccinated rule for public administration employees before it decided on further measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The government adopted the PC rule, which would affect some 30,000 state administration employees, in mid-September, but a police trade union sent the regulation to the top court for review before it would kick in on 1 October, and the court stayed it until its final decision.

Janša regretted the staying of the regulation, arguing similar measures were being introduced in other EU states with a better epidemiological situation that Slovenia's.

Austria has introduced a drastic restriction for all who have not been vaccinated, he said as he answered a question by Anja Bah Žibert from his SDS inquiring about the prime minister's stance on anti-coronavirus measures. Janša said it would be good to know as soon as possible if "we could take the same path".

"With some of their decisions, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court have 'pulled out many teeth' to the government and experts when it comes to acting with instruments which are used everywhere else."

Before the court stayed the PC regulation, Slovenia had recorded a trend that would have enabled it to now have an average EU epidemiological situation, he said.

There would be several hundred Covid patients fewer in hospital, and intensive care units would not be overwhelmed, he added.

Janša believes additional measures will be necessary, but how radical they will be depends on how well the existing measures will be implemented.

He said some measures were already bearing fruit, as there is for instance a greater interest in vaccination.

He criticised the opposition for not supporting the coronavirus measures, arguing that "in most European countries the opposition is not a nuisance".

The ratio between the opposition's calls in favour of the measures and against them is 4:96, he said, arguing such an approach made it impossible to speak about unity in fighting the novel coronavirus.

He also pointed a finger at the media, saying public broadcaster RTV Slovenija started broadcasting calls to protect health only a few days ago, whereas public TVs in the EU had been doing so since the start of the epidemic.

He also criticised last week's joint show of RTV Slovenija and commercial broadcaster POP TV termed Let's Join Forces against Covid-19 as contributing to people being even more divided.