March 13 (SeeNews) - Slovenia has declared the coronavirus outbreak in the country an epidemic as the number of confirmed cases has increased to 96 by Thursday evening, health minister Ales Sabeder said.
The epidemic was declared as of at 6 pm on Thursday upon recommendation of the National Institute of Public Health in line with Slovenia's contagious diseases act, Sabeder said in a statement.
It means that from now on Slovenia's Civil Protection Service is in charge of coordinating the measures to combat the spread of the virus, in cooperation with the relevant institutions, the statement reads.
In addition, hospitals will admit only patients with clinical symptoms requiring hospital treatment, while patients with mild clinical symptoms will have to stay at home.
Slovenia has already taken certain measures to curb the spread of the infection such as work from home, closing of schools, restrictions on border crossings with Italy, and restrictions on public gatherings.
According to offical data, 48 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Ljubljana, 25 in the southern town of Novo Mesto, 7 each in Celje and Maribor, 4 in Koper, 3 in Murska Sobota and 1 each in Kranj and Nova Gorica.
In terms of age, 26 of the infected are in the 30-49 age group, 23 in the 16-29 age group, 22 in the 50-59 age group, 21 are aged over 60 and 4 people are younger than 15.