Coronavirus from the UK may have reached Slovakia by now

Thousands of people travelled from Britain to Slovakia before the ban. Slovak labs have a way to detect the virus.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: AP/TASR)

The new, potentially more infectious, strain of the coronavirus, which has prompted European countries to impose travel restrictions on arrivals from the UK, may have reached Slovakia by now.

"Given Christmas travel and the timing when the information about the new coronavirus strain appeared, we can suppose it is here now," Tomáš Szemes, head of the genomics and bioinformatics lab in the Scientific Part of the Comenius University, told the Sme daily. He pointed out that doctors have detected a higher rate of infections in Bratislava. Peter Celec from the Molecular Biomedicine Institute of Comenius University medical school agrees with his assessment.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

SkryťTurn off ads
Related article UPDATED: Flights from the UK to Slovakia halted Read more 

On the other hand, chief epidemiologist Henrieta Hudečková hesitated to state that the new strain has now reached Slovakia.

"I believe the larger outbreaks, like in Trenčín, are more our own issue," she told Sme.

About a thousand people have travelled from the UK to Bratislava Airport over the past two weeks. There are also flights between airports in the UK and the eastern-Slovak towns of Poprad and Košice.

Slovakia halted flights from Britain as of Monday. People also travel between the UK and Slovakia by buses and cars. As of Monday, they are required to go into quarantine after they arrive to Slovakia. Until then, a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours had been required to avoid quarantine.

No proof of the new strain in Slovakia yet

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad