LJUBLJANA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- From Wednesday, Slovenia will relax the rules on mandatory self-isolation after being in contact with a positive case of COVID-19, Health Minister Janez Poklukar said on Monday. The government's aim is to keep the country's overburdened hospitals functioning, he said.
Healthcare, social and educational workers who have been in contact with an infected person will no longer have to spend seven days in isolation but will instead have to take a COVID-19 test every day for seven consecutive days after the risky contact and wear an FFP2 mask at work, Poklukar told a news conference.
"From Wednesday, students will also not be obliged to go into self-isolation ... but will have to take a COVID-19 test every day for seven days (after a risky contact at school)," Poklukar said.
He said the whole class will have to go into quarantine only if 30 percent of pupils become infected over a period of 14 days. Under the rules currently in force, all students (from kindergarten to university) must quarantine even if only a single case of COVID-19 was reported in their class.
"We adopted these changes based on new professional discoveries about the Omicron variant," Poklukar said. "Our aim is to ensure that the most important and most vulnerable members of our society continue to operate with as few interruptions as possible."
"With these changes we also help other segments the society, including businesses, to operate normally," he added.
People who have received a booster shot, have overcome COVID-19 and have also been fully vaccinated, as well as those who have overcome COVID-19 over the past 45 days will continue to be exempt from mandatory self-isolation even after a risky contact, Poklukar added.
On Friday, Slovenia recorded a new all-time high of 7,580 new daily COVID-19 cases. On Sunday, there were 4,967 new cases, down from 6,012 on Saturday, the National Institute of Public Health said on Monday.
Although Slovenia has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, to date only 57.1 percent of its 2.1 million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. ■