Ljubljana - As many as 2,888 new coronavirus cases were logged in Slovenia on Friday, up 85 from Thursday but down 274 from a week ago, the latest statistics provided by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) show. It is estimated that there are now 38,510 active cases in the country, a daily rise of 686. Three patients died.

The 7-day average of new cases continues to decrease, and is at 2,841, a daily drop of 37, while the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people is increasing, hitting 1,824, up from 1,792.

The new cases were picked up from 1,748 PCR tests and 14,278 rapid antigen tests.

Health Ministry data shows that there are currently 131 Covid patients treated at regular Covid-19 wards, down 10 from yesterday, and 33 in intensive care (ICU), up 1.

Although the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has been prevalent in Slovenia since January, there are some patients infected with Delta who still need medical treatment at UKC Ljubljana's intensive care.

The hospital told the STA on Saturday that these patients need 58 to 99 days of hospital treatment.

Delta was also much more lethal as more patients infected with it died compared to the new Omicron variant.

UKC Ljubljana also said it was working on grouping Covid deaths into those where the main cause was Covid and those where the deaths resulted from other causes. It added, however, that in practice, it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the two.