Ljubljana - A total of 4,469 people tested positive for coronavirus in Slovenia on Friday, the highest daily figure in the latest wave of the epidemic. Six more Covid-19 patients died, show official figures.

The latest cases, a 169% increase on the week before, pushed the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people to 1,508, up 160 from the day before, according to the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The 7-day average of new daily cases rose by 401 to 3,068.

Over 32,000 people are now estimated to be actively infected with the virus, over 3,400 more than the day before.

According to the government, six more Covid-19 patients died yesterday, while the total number of those hospitalised fell to 538, down by nine from yesterday. 156 are treated in intensive care, one up.

Nearly 40% of the 11,223 PCR tests conducted yesterday came back positive. Over 99,100 people were screened with rapid antigen tests yesterday.

NIJZ director Milan Krek has confirmed for the newspaper Dnevnik the institute is considering changing criteria for PCR testing as the country's capacity is limited to roughly 18,000 such tests a day.

If necessary, testing with this more reliable method could be limited to hospitalised patients and other clinically critical cases.

This comes amidst reports of the highly-contagious Omicron variant of the virus finding its way into a non-Covid ward of the Jesenice General Hospital. As a result, the abdominal section of the hospital's surgical department is no longer admitting new patients, TV Slovenija has reported.