schema:articleBody
| - Slovenia announced Friday it will ease coronavirus restrictions and suspend a six-month-long curfew starting Monday, with the government saying an 11-day partial lockdown over Easter had curbed the epidemic. Elementary schools and high-schools will restart in-person lessons, smaller shops and services will reopen from Monday. Masks will only be mandatory in indoor public spaces or at crowded gatherings. "In my opinion the lockdown was urgently needed and has been succesful," Health Minister Janez Poklukar told a news conference. The partial shutdown has been in force since April 1 and, according to Poklukar, helped avoid the highest grade in the country's coronavirus warning system, the "black level". However, Poklukar added that the third wave of the epidemic -- boosted by the more easily transmissible British variant -- hadn't yet reached its peak. Therefore bigger shops and restaurants will remain closed and citizens will still be confined to their home regions. Up to Friday around 300,000 people -- or 15 percent of the population -- had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, officials said. Slovenia has reported just over 4,100 deaths since the start of the pandemic, making it one of the hardest-hit countries in the European Union relative to population, with 197 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants. bk/jsk/bp
|