Ljubljana - Slovenia confirmed 17,491 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, by far the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic and an increase of more than 40% on the week before.

The positive cases come from the highest daily number of PCR tests performed to date, almost 23,000, show data by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Almost four weeks into the omicron-driven surge, the high caseload is starting to have an impact on hospitals.

There were 670 patients with Covid-19 in hospital this morning, up by over a hundred from a week ago, whereas ICU cases, which typically trail hospital admissions by a week or more, declined by 24 over the week before to 127.

The latest figures bring the 14-day case notification rate per 100,000 people to 6,463, with the rolling seven-day average of daily cases hitting 11,808.

The NIJZ estimates there are currently more than 136,000 active cases in the country.