Slovenia: Ban on travel outside of home municipality lifted

published on 4 May 2020 | reading time approx. 1 minute

Slovenians are able to travel freely around the country as the ban on traveling outside the municipality has been lifted on Thursday, this week. The ban to travel between municipalities has been put in place a month ago to help restrict the spreading of the Coronavirus in Slovenia.

The restriction confining people to their home municipality except to go to work, seek emergency services or offer assistance to relatives was introduced a month ago to stop the spread of coronavirus and has been one of the most unpopular government measures.
 
People are still required to physically distance themselves from each other in public areas, wear masks, and use hand sanitizer in all shops or other closed public spaces. Gatherings of more than 5 people in still banned due to Coronavirus.
 
Shops with building material, car dealerships, and shops selling bicycles, dry cleaners and some repair shops such as tyre replacement shops will reopen on Monday, 4th of May, as the government decided to further ease lockdown measures. By adding new exceptions to the restrictions on shops and services imposed in Slovenia on 16 March, the government allowed hair and beauty salons to reopen also.
 
Between 8 am and 9:30 am all those shops will be open for vulnerable groups of shoppers only (i.e. persons with disabilities, pregnant women and those above the age of 65). The latter group will not be able to enter the shops outside the dedicated opening hour.
 
While the majority of roads on the border between Slovenia and Italy remain blocked to contain the spread of coronavirus, a new entry point, Predel, opened this week. Citizens can cross the border using a special certificate. Another border checkpoint will be set up at Rateče until the end of this week.
 
Slovenian air traffic remain severely restricted as the government again extended a ban on passenger flights that was already prolonged twice, first in late March and then early April. The ban was first introduced on 17 March to help contain the Covid-19 spread.
 
As part of the second stimulus package adopted this week, one of the measures is the introduction of vouchers to help the tourism sector. This means that travel agencies will be able to issue vouchers to consumers who had paid for a holiday they could not take due to the pandemic.
 
Slovenia is currently among the most successful countries in the fight against the epidemic. Due to the rapid preparation of corona legislative packages, it is economically and socially among the least affected.