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Decisions adopted by the government to contain COVID-19 epidemic

The Government adopted the ordinance on a temporary ban on the sale of goods and services to consumers in the Republic of Slovenia, issued the Ordinance on the allocation of doctors without licences, and revoked the validity of the Order on prohibiting the sale of protective equipment.

The Government adopted the ordinance on a temporary ban on the sale of goods and services to consumers in the Republic of Slovenia

Based on the Communicable Diseases Act, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia issued an ordinance by which it temporarily banned the provision and sale of goods and services directly to consumers in the Republic of Slovenia with certain exceptions in order to contain and manage the COVID-19 epidemic. The ordinance enters into force on 16 March 2020 at 00.00.

The ordinance will temporarily ban the provision and sale of goods and services directly to consumers in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia. These include accommodation, catering, wellness, sports and recreational, cinematographic, cultural, hairdressing, cosmetics and pedicure services, including gaming and other similar activities.

The temporary ban excludes remote provision and sale of goods and services to consumers and the following activities:

  • stores with food, including the sale of agricultural produce at farms;
  • pharmacies;
  • shops with medical and orthopaedic devices;
  • the garden and agriculture programme in stores;
  • farm shops;
  • petrol stations;
  • banks;
  • post offices;
  • delivery services;
  • tobacconists and kiosks for the sale of newspapers and magazines, and
  • other urgent services ensuring public safety and health.

The temporary ban also excludes all forms of provision and sale of goods and services to consumers, which are or will be referred to in other ordinances as exemptions, which have already or will be adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia to contain and manage the COVID-19 epidemic.

Within 24 hours after the entry into force of the relevant ordinance of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the National Institute of Public Health will issue recommendations relating to the number of consumers that may be present simultaneously at individual business premises as per their square footage.

The bans from the adopted ordinance will apply until the termination of their reasons, which will be established and adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia by means of a decision published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Government issued the Ordinance on the allocation of doctors without licences

At today’s correspondence session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia issued the Ordinance on the allocation of doctors without licences to be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. The Ordinance enters into force on 15 March 2020 at 19.00.

This Ordinance determined the manner of incorporating interns and specialist trainees (doctors without licences) into the implementation of measures to prevent, manage and eliminate consequences of the infectious COVID-19 epidemic.

Specialisation ceases for all specialist trainees, including all trainees’ obligations arising from their specialisations (rotation, taking specialist exams and similar).

During the measures from this Ordinance, all tendering procedures for new specialisations will cease.

For the needs of implementing measures, specialist trainees may be called upon to work by their employers. If specialist trainees are not called upon to work by their employers, they may be called upon by medical institutions where they are undergoing their rotation. If specialist trainees are not called upon to work by their employers or medical institutions from the preceding sentence, their employers will allocate them to posts where they are needed due to implementing measures from Article 1 of this Ordinance.

For the needs of this Ordinance, the employer is the medical institution with which the specialist trainee concluded the employment contract.

Based directly on this Ordinance, the mandatory and selective sections of internship from Article 14 of the Medical Practitioners Act are extended for the duration of measures under this Ordinance. All obligations of interns arising from their internship are suspended for the duration of measures under this Ordinance, and they are called upon to work according to need.

As per the preceding paragraph, interns are called to work by authorised providers under Article 22 of the Medical Practitioners Act, where the interns perform their internship.

The doctors without licences perform their work on the basis of this Ordinance under the supervision and responsibility of their direct mentors appointed by their employers or authorised providers from Article 3 or 4 of this Ordinance with whom they carry out their work.

All employment contracts of doctors without licences that are valid upon the entry into force of this Ordinance remain applicable for the duration of measures under this Ordinance.

The employment contracts from the preceding paragraph apply relating to the payment of work of doctors without licences and financing of their work.

The limitations under this Ordinance apply until the cessation of their reasons, which will be determined by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia with a decision published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Government revoked the validity of the Order on prohibiting the sale of protective equipment

At today’s correspondence session, the Government issued the Ordinance on the expiry of the Order on prohibiting the sale of protective equipment that entered into force on Friday, 13 March 2020. This Ordinance enters into force on 15 March 2020 at 19.00, which means that the sale of protective equipment for novel coronavirus is no longer prohibited.