At today's meting by correspondence, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia issued the Ordinance on temporary measures in healthcare to contain and manage the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Ordinance provides that all healthcare providers shall suspend the provision of preventive health services. However, preventive health services the suspension of which could have negative consequences for a patient's health shall continue to be provided.

All specialist examinations and surgeries with all healthcare providers shall be cancelled, with the exception of referrals marked with the level of urgency "urgent" and "very fast", oncology services and treatment of pregnant women. The measure referred to in the preceding paragraph shall also apply to rehabilitation procedures and other forms of non-urgent treatment.

As of the entry into force of this Ordinance, only administrative emergency medical services shall be provided in the Kamnik Community Health Centre.

All dental health practitioners shall suspend the provision of all dental services. Emergency dental services and services the suspension of which would lead to permanent impairment of a patient's overall and oral health shall continue to be provided.

Emergency dental clinics shall be organised in the Ljubljana Community Health Centre, Maribor Community Health Centre, Celje Community Health Centre, Kranj Community Health Centre, Novo mesto Community Health Centre, Koper Community Health Centre, and Nova Gorica Community Health Centre. The aforementioned clinics shall also provide treatment at the secondary healthcare level in emergency cases. In the area of dentistry, services at the tertiary healthcare level shall be provided by the Division of Stomatology, the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, and the Clinical Department of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, the University Medical Centre Ljubljana.

At the invitation of the minister responsible for health, the management of healthcare providers in the public health service network shall redeploy employees who provide preventive health services to tasks related to the containment and control of the COVID-19 epidemics.

Healthcare providers at the primary healthcare level shall organise the provision of health services in residential homes for the elderly in their area.

As of the entry into force of this Ordinance, the Decree on temporary measures to control the spread of communicable disease SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 22/20) shall cease to apply.

Source: Ministry of Health

Lower electricity bills for household customers and small business customers

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has issued the Ordinance on temporary suspension of payment of the contribution for ensuring support for the production of electricity from high-efficiency cogeneration and renewable energy sources for small business electricity customers and household electricity customers. The estimate is that an electricity bill for an average household will be reduced by about 20 per cent.

The Ordinance is issued as part of measures for mitigating the social and economic consequences of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. The Ordinance shall temporarily interfere with the obligation to pay contributions in the following way: from 1 March 2020 to 31 May 2020, small business and household electricity customers will not pay the contribution for ensuring support for the production of electricity from high-efficiency cogeneration and renewable energy sources.

Source: Ministry of Infrastructure

Ordinance amending the Ordinance on the temporary prohibition of offering and selling goods and services to consumers

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has issued the Ordinance amending the Ordinance on the temporary prohibition of offering and selling goods and services to consumers in the Republic of Slovenia.

The Ordinance amending the Ordinance on the temporary prohibition of offering and selling goods and services to consumers in the Republic of Slovenia:
a) defines in detail a grocery store referred to in indent one of paragraph one of Article 2 of the Ordinance;
b) adds stores selling animal food to the exceptions to the prohibition;
c) temporarily determines the business hours of stores selling groceries and agricultural products, except for micro and small enterprises, sole proprietors and cooperatives.

A grocery store is a store that mostly sells groceries.

The business hours for stores that mostly sell groceries, including the sale of agricultural products on farms, shall begin no later than at 8:00 and end no earlier than at 18:00.

Since the purpose of determining the minimum business hours is to prevent contact because of the epidemic, the Ordinance determines business hours enabling a longer time interval of making purchases in stores, thus reducing the concentration of shoppers. The temporarily determined business hours for the above stores shall be shorter than those determined by the preceding Ordinance.

At the same time, an exception to the business hours of grocery stores and stores selling agricultural products determined by the Ordinance is provided for micro and small companies, sole proprietors and cooperatives, which shall, in accordance with the Ordinance, be able to determine their business hours themselves on the basis of their business decision, which is necessary for organising their operation with the existing staffing capacity and within normal business hours.

This Ordinance shall enter into force on 21 March 2020 at 00:00.

Source: Ministry of Economic Development and Technology