Former elite tennis player and her husband skipped the vaccination line

Medical staff and people working in critical infrastructure are supposed to be vaccinated during the first phase.

Dominika CibulkováDominika Cibulková (Source: AP/TASR)

Former Slovak tennis player Dominika Cibulková was vaccinated against the coronavirus last week. She received the jab at the vaccination centre in the Kramáre hospital, which is part of the University Hospital in Bratislava (UNB).

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“We found out that Dominika Cibulková was vaccinated in one of our three vaccination centres in Kramáre,” UNB spokesperson Eva Kliská confirmed to the Denník N daily.

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Her husband Michal Navara also received the jab.

“We can confirm that both Cibulková and her husband were added to the list of healthcare workers who should be vaccinated without authorisation,” Kliská added for Denník N.

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The employee responsible for the mistake will not be able to continue administering vaccinations, according to the UNB.

“Only healthcare workers, people from critical infrastructure and other groups defined by the Health Ministry are on this list,” Kliská said, as quoted by Denník N.

Healthcare staff and critical infrastructure

The first person in Slovakia received the jab on December 26 and since then, some 20,000 people have been vaccinated. The government has also adopted a strategy, setting priorities for who receives the vaccination first based on the risk they are exposed to.

In the first phase, healthcare workers, people working in critical infrastructure and employees of nursing homes, plus some invited personalities (like the president and cabinet ministers) were to be vaccinated.

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The general public, except for older people and people working in risky jobs, will be vaccinated only in the fourth and final phase that is expected to start in the spring.

Vaccination rules violated

Related article When will I get my COVID vaccine? FAQs about vaccination in Slovakia Read more 

The vaccination of any person who does not belong to the groups set by the ministry for the first phase is at odds with the vaccination strategy and any preferential treatment is unacceptable, the hospital stressed.

The vaccination centre employee who vaccinated Cibulková and her husband has violated the rules, said UNB director Renáta Vandriaková.

Starting on January 11, only people at the helm of these centres will be able to access the vaccination lists, the hospital added.

It also apologised for the situation and promised to avoid similar failures in the future. It plans to introduce double checks of lists and retrain the staff, Denník N wrote.

Health Minister Marek Krajčí (OĽaNO) also asked people to be patient and wait for their turn, without skipping the line.

Cibulková apologised

Cibulková apologised for the incident, too, claiming she misunderstood the situation. In her words, she was accompanying a person in the hospital and only wanted to know when she and her husband could be vaccinated.

“If I knew I was violating the rules and did not only serve as a replacement of somebody on the list, I would not get the vaccination,” she wrote on Facebook.

She hopes the situation will at least help with the campaign to support COVID-19 vaccination.

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