LJUBLJANA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia on Thursday reported 2,064 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national tally of confirmed cases to 60,887.
The country conducted 6,806 coronavirus tests on Wednesday, 30.33 percent of which came back positive. A total of 1,238 patients were being treated in hospitals (42 fewer than the day before), 205 of them in intensive care, four fewer than the day before, as 78 were discharged home. Forty-five new deaths took the toll to 964.
"We're all deeply worried, in particular doctors and other health personnel, what the situation will be in a few days," government spokesperson Jelko Kacin said at a press briefing, urging people to stay at home as much as possible.
According to the official COVID-19 tracker site, there are currently 19,917 active cases in the country. The average 14-day incidence rate is now 950 per 100,000 population.
The Slovenian National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food is planning to check samples from previous seasons to see whether the novel coronavirus circulated in Slovenia before the first infection was confirmed on March 4 this year, according to the Slovenian Press Agency STA.
The government of Slovenia decided to tighten the restrictive measures designed to curb the spread of coronavirus for two weeks on Nov. 12.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, countries including France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.
According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of Nov. 12, 212 COVID-19 candidate vaccines were being developed worldwide, 48 of them in clinical trials.
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