(ANSA) - LJUBLJANA, APR 19 - Slovenia on Monday reopened cafe
and restaurant terraces after six months following a decline in
coronavirus infections and deaths. "It's not only about the
coffee, it's the chats that we've been missing," said an
ecstatic David Delfar, who runs Kapetanija, one of the busiest
cafes in the port town of Koper. Since the pandemic spread in
Europe in March 2020, cafes and restaurants had to close for a
total of eight months. They still remain closed in four out of
the country's 12 regions, including in the capital Ljubljana,
where infection rates remain high. Social-distancing measures
are also still in place, and tables have to be kept at least 1.5
metres (5 feet) apart. A partial 11-day shutdown over Easter
helped keep the number of infections low with the now dominant
British variant at a steady level, Tjasa Zohar Cretnik, the head
of the National Health Laboratory, said last week. Earlier this
month, the country of 2 million reopened shops, service
industries and schools, while masks remain mandatory indoors.
Starting Monday, rallies of up to a 100 participants are allowed
again after the Constitutional Court found that a ban breached
the right of free expression. Slovenia has reported more than
4,160 deaths since the start of the pandemic, making it one of
the hardest-hit countries in the European Union in terms of its
population, with 200 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants.
(ANSA).
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