Ljubljana/Bled - A campaign aimed at boosting the Covid-19 vaccination rate in Slovenia was launched on Sunday. Taking place until Thursday, 62 vaccination centres across the country will work overtime and Civil Protection and Red Cross staff will provide free transportation.

Health Minister Janez Poklukar kicked off the campaign in Bled, where he got his booster shot. In view of the highly transmissible omicron variant that is now on the rise across the world, he urged all residents to get vaccinated, labelling this as the only way to return to normal.

The caseload in Slovenia has been declining for several weeks now, but the negative curve has started to flatten and Slovenia has reported locally transmitted cases of omicron.

Poklukar said that people vaccinated with viral vector vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Janssen in particular would be wise to get booster shots since these vaccines do not offer such good protection against the omicron variant.

"This is one more reason why all of us who have been inoculated with viral vector vaccines should re-vaccinate," he said. "Omicron is a part our lives and it is right to prepare."

As part of the Vaccination Days, vaccination centres will be open from 8am to 8pm, with vaccine being available at one location in each statistical region at night, from 8pm to 8am.

Night vaccination centres will be open at the Nova Gorica, Izola, Brežice and Celje general hospitals, in the Sežana, Postojna, Novo Mesto, Slovenj Gradec, Murska Sobota and Maribor community health centres, the Ljubljana and Maribor university medical centres, and at the Golnik Hospital.

With the exception of children aged 5-11, who need a paediatrician to be present during vaccination, there is no need to register in advance. People can choose what type of Covid-19 vaccine they get.

Poklukar said the campaign was an opportunity for everyone to get a jab. It is also a show of solidarity of community health centres with hospitals, which are "really burning out".

He said the goal was to achieve a vaccination rate of 98% among those over 50 and 80% among the general population. "This goal will be difficult to attain, but it is realistic and it is the only way to approach normal life in 2022."

Roughly 56% of Slovenia's population is fully vaccinated and the share is 66% among those over 18 and 76% among the over-50s, according to official data.

More than 377,000 booster shots have been administered as well, which means about a third of the fully vaccinated have had their immunity boosted.