This is one of the reasons why a pilot self-test of high school students, followed by 7th to 9th grade students, will begin next week, in the last month of this school year. Key efforts to control the epidemic, however, are currently focused on implementing mass vaccination.

Mateja Logar, the head of the advisory group at the Ministry of Health, said that the trends of the number of newly infected and those admitted to hospitals are favourable; however, more than a third of all patients in hospitals are in intensive care units – the majority of them are over the age of 50 and could already be vaccinated. Therefore, Logar again urged people to get vaccinated.

Dr Marta Grgič Vitek, National Vaccination Programme Coordinator at the NIJZ, pointed this week out that the share of people in Slovenia vaccinated with all doses rose to 14.2 per cent. The most successful regions are approaching 30 per cent of the single-dose vaccinated population. There is a slightly greater share of women who are vaccinated. However, these differences are diminishing. Vaccination coverage by age suggests that people in the 70+ age group are well covered. Even in the 60+ age group, we have reached almost 50 per cent. However, there is yet much to be achieved in the 50+ age group, she added.