Ljubljana - The number of new coronavirus cases in Slovenia rose both in daily and weekly comparisons on Tuesday to 1,863. This is the third day that the cases were up in weekly comparison after dropping for over a month. The test positivity rate was at 31.3%.

The number of active case has been increasing as well in the last few days, rising by 337 to 16,528 today, according to estimates by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The 7-day average of new cases increased by 86 to 1,198 and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people was up by 15 to 781.

572 Covid patients are currently being treated in hospitals, down 14 from yesterday, including 190 in intensive care, 11 fewer than yesterday. Nine patients have died, the government said.

The epidemic thus seems to be on the rise again, which experts attribute to more socialising before the holidays and the rapid spreading of the new Omicron variant.

However, it is not clear yet how this will affect hospitalisations, Matjaž Leskovar from the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) said last night.

He said the rise of the curve was being slowed down by consistent implementation of the PCT rule of recovered, vaccinated or tested.

But the cumulative number of hospitalised patients with such an infectious virus is effectively reduced only by vaccination, he stressed.

The vaccination rate has been standing at 56%. 59% of the population has received the first jab.

The estimated reproduction number stands at about 1.05, which means that an infected person infects little more than one person on average.

According to the last data by the National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food, 65 Omicron infections have so far been confirmed in Slovenia.

As Omicron seems to be spreading rapidly, Roman Jerala, the head of the National Chemistry Institute's synthetic biology and immunology department, told public broadcaster POP TV on Monday it would be sensible to consider closing schools for a week after New Year's but Mateja Logar, the head of the Covid-19 advisory group, said such a move was not being considered at the moment.

"It would be completely unethical and unmoral to have bars and restaurants open and schools closed," she said, adding that schools would be closed only in case of severe deterioration of the epidemiological situation.