March 25 (SeeNews) - A fifth person has died from the novel coronavirus in Slovenia, as the number of infected rose to 528 by midday on Wednesday, from Tuesday's 480, health minister Tomaz Gantar said.
"The latest fatality happened today in the Smarje pri Jelsah retirement home," Gantar told a news conference. A video file form the conference was uploaded on the government's website.
News daily Delo recalled that this is already the second coronavirus death in this retirement home where 26 occupants and six employees are infected with the virus.
Gantar told the news conference that the latest data emerged after a total of 16,113 people were tested.
He added that Slovenia at this moment has 539 hospital beds available for COVID-19 patients, and if needed this number could increase to some 1,000.
At the same time, 72 of the available beds have been occupied as of Wednesday morning, with 14 of the patients being under intensive therapy.
"We expect that the number of infected patients will further increase in the coming days," Gantar said.
He warned last week that the number of people infected by the coronavirus in the country is probably five times the officially confirmed cases.
The first confirmed coronavirus case in Slovenia was reported on March 4.