Slovenia tightens access to indoor spaces due to COVID-19

ZAGREB (Reuters) - Slovenia will, from this week, require that all people who enter indoor spaces, with few exceptions, be vaccinated against COVID-19 or show negative tests unless they have had the disease in the previous six months, the government said on Monday.

"If you go to a food and beverages store or a pharmacy, you will not need to meet those requirements only if such a store is not within a shopping center," Slovenian national television quoted the state secretary in the ministry for economic development and technology Simon Zajc as saying.

Wearing masks is obligatory indoors, as well as outdoors when keeping a safe physical distance is not possible.

The new requirements will have to be met when visiting places such as a bank, post office or petrol station or for using public transport - excluding school pupils - and for visiting a doctor unless there is an emergency case, the report said.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Slovenia, a country of some two million people, is rising. Last week, there were 6,000 cases recorded, 2,000 more than a week earlier.

Some 45% of the Slovenian population has been fully vaccinated.

(Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Bernadette Baum)