Slovakia has already brought the start of a lockdown planned for next week to this Saturday. At the same time, strict exit restrictions will come into force from Saturday 5 a.m. Health Minister Marek Krajci announced yesterday after an hour-long government meeting. Christmas shopping is only possible until Friday.
Originally, all shops except supermarkets should not be closed for at least three weeks until December 21. A simultaneous curfew was not included in the government’s previous plans. Krajci cited the dramatically worsening pandemic situation in the country and, above all, the impending overloading of hospitals as the reason for the short-term change.
High number of dead
According to the data published today by the health authorities, 58 people with a CoV infection died within 24 hours in the EU country. That is the highest number of deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in March. This means that twice as many people died from the virus in one day in Slovakia as in the entire spring and summer combined. The country only counts those deaths in the statistics for which no other cause of death can be proven.
On the weekend of October 31 and November 1, Slovakia attracted international attention with the first nationwide mass tests on almost the entire population for over ten years. The populist-conservative head of government Igor Matovic had touted the mass tests as an alternative to a lockdown. Today he saw the fact that the lockdown could not be prevented as a political defeat.
