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COVID-19: Slovenia becomes 1st European nation to declare end of epidemic

Published

4 years ago

May 15, 2020

COVID-19: Slovakia becomes 1st European nation to declare end of epidemic

The government of Slovenia (a mountainous nation of two million people) has declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus becoming the first European country to do so.

The state’s government said on Friday that the COVID-19 spread is under control and there is no longer a need for extraordinary health measures to stem the spread of the deadly virus which is now under control.

“Today Slovenia has the best epidemic situation in Europe, which enables us to call off the general epidemic,” Prime Minister Janez Jansa said, two months after the epidemic was declared.

“Since the danger of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains, some general and special measures will remain in force,” the government said in a statement.

The declaration now means, people arriving in Slovenia from other European Union states will no longer be obliged to go into quarantine for at least seven days as was the case from early April, the government said in a statement, but a quarantine of at least 14 days will remain in place for people from non-EU states.

The decision came after officials of the Balkan country confirmed fewer than seven new coronavirus cases each day for the past two weeks.

The National Institute of Public Health estimated that all indicators show that the virus’ spread has calmed down, with a total of 35 new cases recorded in the last 14 days.

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