Surviving, so far as we can tell

Does anyone understand Slovakia’s pandemic rules any more?

Banská BystricaBanská Bystrica (Source: TASR)

After all the lockdowns, ‘skrinings’, ‘automats’, and incoherent ‘I’ll just put it out there’ proposals floated by ministers one day and torpedoed the next, the numbers contracting Covid-19 continue to tick up by thousands a day, and deaths by over 100 a day. Daily vaccinations remain pitifully low, in four-digit figures.

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Each week, I trudge down to the local testing centre – a former primary school – where someone in full-body PPE sticks a swab up my nose. The youngsters all get their results by SMS, but the pensioners and I know from bitter experience that a physical bumážka is the gold standard of Slovak bureaucracy, and worth a few extra moments of our time.

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As we wait in the playground for our numbers to come up, a boombox serenades us with rock hits. This week it was ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor.

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Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


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.


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