Ljubljana - Slovenia recorded 1,820 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, up nearly 19% from Tuesday last week but down almost 28% from Monday, when the country entered a new, autumn wave of the epidemic. Two persons infected with coronavirus died, shows fresh data from the Health Ministry.

Commenting on Monday's 2,512 new cases recorded, Janez Žibert, a modelling expert at the Ljubljana Faculty of Health Sciences, said the country had entered the autumn wave which should peak in mid- or late October.

A total of 63 patients were treated in hospitals for Covid-19 as their main condition on Tuesday, down 5 in a day, and another 6 in intensive care, down 3.

The overall number of hospitalisations, including those infected with coronavirus but treated for other conditions, increased by 3 to 182 from Monday.

Tatjana Lejko Zupanc, head of UKC Ljubljana's infectious diseases clinic, has told the STA that the first Covid patient received the Paxlovid medicine on Saturday.

While the country's largest hospital already received 10 packages of Paxlovid tablets, the other hospitals treating Covid patients and pharmacies will get the medicine next week.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has received the first 1,008 dosages of this Covid drug that is produced by Pfizer.

The country's rolling seven-day average of daily cases now stands at 1,347, up 42 in a day, whereas the 14-day case notification rate per 100,000 people rose by 11 to 884.

The number of active cases is estimated to have increased by almost 220 to around 18,660 from yesterday, according to the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).