Ljubljana - Slovenia reported 1,829 new cases of coronavirus for Wednesday, an increase of almost 5% from the same day week ago, and five deaths among patients with Covid-19, which is the highest daily death toll since 4 May. A modelling expert expects the infections peak next week.

Data released by the Health Ministry shows 84 patients were treated in hospitals for Covid-19 as their main condition, including nine in intensive care.

While the number of those patients dropped the overall number of infected patients treated in hospitals increased to 335, including 16 in intensive care.

According to the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), the 7-day average of new daily cases rose by 13 to 1,565 as the 14-incidence rate per 100,000 of the population rose by ten to 984.

Janez Žibert, a modelling expert of the Ljubljana Faculty of Health Sciences who is a member of the Covid-19 task force affiliated with the NIJZ, projects that the summer wave will slowly stabilise.

In a post on Twitter he said the reproduction showing the spread of infections was falling and modelling predicting that the infections will peak in late July.

"What happens next is still unclear. One possibility is that we will stay on the plateau and the increase will slow down, the other is that the curve will turn downwards," he said.

Bojana Beović, an infectious diseases expert who headed the Covid-19 task force under the previous government, says it will depend on the population's immunity, which is not fully clear yet, how fast the country will reach the peak.

The summer wave of coronavirus in Slovenia is driven by the spread of the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5. Data from the National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food shows the two sub-variants are present in more than 95% of all samples analysed in the country.

Citing data from the UK, Beović said the symptoms of of those infected with the two sub-variants are very similar to the common cold.

However, she described the situation in hospitals as a cause for concern due to the many patients infected with coronavirus who are treated for other conditions. "This is quite a burden because these patients need to be separated from the others who are in hospital."

In some patients, Covid-19 worsens the underlying chronic problems, but a small proportion still suffer from Covid pneumonia, which was more common with previous variants of the virus, she said.