Statements to the press have been delivered by the State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Simona Repar Bornšek, and Nina Pirnat, Director of the National Institute of Public Health.

Statements providing updates on the occurrence of the coronavirus infection have been given by the Minister of Health, Aleš Šabeder, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Simona Repar Bornšek, Nina Pirnat from the National Institute of Public Health and the Head of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Dr Tatjana Lejko Zupanc.

Health Minister Aleš Šabeder said in a press release that at 20:44 the Ministry had been informed of the first positive case of novel coronavirus infection in Slovenia.

Following the invitation of the Italian Minister of Health, a meeting was held of the ministers of Italy’s neighbouring countries: Slovenia, France, San Marino, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Germany. Italy and its neighbours presented their existing and planned measures for protection against the coronavirus. The measures presented by the individual countries are comparable.

At its meeting today, the National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat took note of the current situation and activities concerning the coronavirus, which are managed by the Ministry of Health as the competent state authority according to the Infectious Diseases Act.

Slovenia joins the efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus by sending assistance in kind (1.2 million facemasks) to the People’s Republic of China, thus being among the first countries to respond through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism by providing the most generous donation per capita. In addition, Slovenia will also allocate a EUR 60,000 donation to the World Health Organisation.