Ljubljana, Nov 22 (IANS): The Covid-19 death toll in Slovenia has passed the 1,000 mark, showed official figures.

The country's death toll rose by 31 in the last 24 hours to 1,026, while the total number of cases increased by 1,690 to 64,123, Xinhua reported.

The country conducted 6,580 coronavirus tests on Friday, with 25.68 percent of them returning positive. A total of 1,219 Covid-19 patients are in hospitals, 35 fewer than the day before. Among the hospitalized, 197 are in intensive care, four fewer than the day before.

The death toll in the second wave of the Covid-19 in the country is much higher than the one registered in the first wave, when 108 people died from the coronavirus-caused disease, according to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), which reported that more than 600 people died in November alone.

Government spokesperson Jelko Kacin tweeted that "daily fluctuations can be seen, but this week the trend was notably negative nevertheless."

Government departments in Slovenia have been instructed to prepare a mass testing of the population for coronavirus by December 5 and the registration of candidates for voluntary vaccination, Prime Minister Janez Jansa announced on Twitter Friday night.