THE NUMBER of imported coronavirus cases, and not only the number of infections per 100,000 citizens, should be taken into account when introducing new measures for entering Slovenia from other countries, Slovenian epidemiologists and government representatives said on Wednesday.

Last Thursday Slovenia put Croatia on its red list of epidemiologically unsafe countries due to COVID-19, and government spokesman Jelko Kacin told a press conference in Ljubljana that that had been justified, especially given the fact that the school year soon starts.

"We are now less interested in the number of infection per 100,000 citizens in the last 14 days and more in how many cases have been imported from a particular country," said Kacin.

He added that this was why the government's decision on mandatory quarantine for those returning from the Western Balkans, and even Croatia, was correct because the number of imported cases had been declining after the decision had gone into effect.

"It would have been irresponsible if we had just waited for the number of new cases. We have warned those who were in Croatia about the trend in time, so there has been significantly less transmission of the infection from Croatia to Slovenia since last week," Kacin said, adding the Slovenia tourists started returning from Croatia immediately after August 14, when the government communicated its first messages to them.

36 new cases of  infection in last 24 hours

Over the past 24 hours, 36 new cases of the infection have been confirmed in Slovenia, significantly more than the previous day, but the number of imported cases is on the decline.

Epidemiologist  Nuska Caks Jager told the press conference that 323 cases of the coronavirus infection had been imported to Slovenia since the start of June, including 179 from Croatia, 45 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 30 from Serbia and 19 from Kosovo.

Of the 36 cases registered yesterday, two came from Croatia and two from Germany, according to the data by the Slovenian Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), she added.

Kacin said that the number of infections was also rising in the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia, which borders with Slovenia, but the government still had not discussed possible measures.