Ljubljana - Slovenia's daily coronavirus count continued its downward trajectory as 2,224 new cases were reported for Friday, down both on the day and the week before. Hospitalisations remained stable, but another 23 Covid-19 patients died yesterday, government data shows.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 dropped by 17 to 1,120 this morning ad 284 still required intensive care, down by five.

Meanwhile, new infections have been down week-on-week for the eighth consecutive day.

The 7-day average of new cases has dropped to 2,478, 144 less than the day before, and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 fell by 67 to 1,901, according to the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The NIJZ estimates the number of actively infected people to have declined to 40,046.

The PCR test positivity rate yesterday was 36%.

As the latest wave of coronavirus appears to be subsiding in the country, there are concerns about the new variant of the virus, declared to be of concern and named Omicron by the World Health Organisation, although no case has yet been confirmed in Slovenia.

In a post on its Twitter profile today, the National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food said it has not detected any case of the new variant through sequencing.

Slovenia has placed restrictions on arrivals from several south African countries to prevent the new variant to be imported in the country.