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Starting November 15, anyone wishing to enter Slovakia will have to prove a negative CoV test or take a quick test directly at the border. Health Minister Marek Krajci said this today in an interview with the TV news channel TA3. Contrary to what was previously announced, however, the regulation will not come into force until November 15. Until then, test stations are to be set up at all major border crossings, some smaller ones will be closed.
Government sticks to second round of testing
Krajci confirmed that the government is sticking to its plan to test the population a second time, despite criticism from health experts. The second round of testing on Saturday and Sunday will, however, exclude those parts of the country where there are apparently particularly few infected people. In the list presented today by the Ministry of Defense, the capital city of Bratislava is also among the exceptions that will not be tested again. In Bratislava only about 0.3 percent of the tests were positive on the weekend, while the national average was just over one percent.
Two out of three inhabitants tested within two days
In an unprecedented campaign, two thirds of Slovakia’s 5.5 million inhabitants were tested for the coronavirus in just two days. The populist-conservative head of government Igor Matovic evaluated the action announced at short notice as a success that other countries could take as a model. More than 38,000 positively tested persons, who now had to go into quarantine, would otherwise have spread the infection undetected, he explained.
The Medical Association, on the other hand, criticized the campaign as a waste of already scarce resources. Several mayors threatened to boycott a second round. Municipalities complained that without sufficient information and preparation time, they had been pushed into “the biggest logistical action in the history of Slovakia”.
Source: ORF.at/agencies. Picture: pixabay.com
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