Should experts recommend mandatory vaccination, he would support the move and ask all MPs to vote in favor of it, Slovenian President Borut Pahor said in an interview on Tuesday.
The lesson of the epidemic, he said, is that Slovenia needs a strong public health system. The current system needs to be overhauled, so health care reform should be a priority for the next government, he underlined.
“I understand that some people are still afraid of vaccination,” he stressed, adding that whoever overcame that fear is “the hero of the age.”
By Tuesday, 1,813 new coronavirus infections had been registered in the country, and 11 patients had died as a result of the infection. Hospitals care for 586 patients, 201 of whom are in the intensive care unit. In the country of just over 2 million people, 1,248,409 people have been vaccinated so far, 1,187,280 of whom have already taken the second dose.
According to the latest, Dec. 28 data, about one-fifth of the country’s population has contracted the disease so far and the death toll stands at 5,565.
In neighboring Croatia, with a population of just over 4 million, 4,139 new coronavirus infections have been identified in the past 24 hours, and 50 have died of the virus-induced Covid-19 disease. Data shows 1,851 patients are in hospitals, 238 of whom are on ventilators. To date, 2,253,137 people in the country have been vaccinated, 2,124,416 of whom have already received the second dose.
Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros told the press on Tuesday after a meeting of the government’s scientific advisory committee that a new version of the coronavirus called Omicron was a threat to everyone and the government was preparing for the big numbers. So far, reports highlight that Omicron produces milder symptoms than other variants.
“We can’t expect (the Omicron) to get out of us,” he said. He mentioned the possibility that the fifth wave would coincide with the fourth wave, which could be accompanied by an influenza epidemic.
“We all agreed on what is most missing, and that is the higher vaccination rate,” he said, then repeatedly called on citizens to vaccinate.
