Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský (source: TASR)
Slovakia has passed another threshold and met the criteria for switching to the light red tier next week. More details on the measures that will be further lifted will be revealed on Friday, May 7.
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If the positive trend continues, it is possible that the Covid automat alert system will be switched off on a national level and the districts will only follow the respective rules for the tier they are currently in, said Matej Mišík, head of the Institute for Health Analyses that runs under the Health Ministry.
On the regional level, two districts will remain in the dark red tier from next Monday, May 10, while 33 will be in the red tier and 44 in the light red tier.
The map of districts after May 10, 2021 (source: Health Ministry)
Curfew remains in place
The average number of new daily cases dropped to about 1,000 and keeps dropping. At the same time, hospitalisations went down to about 1,300, according to Mišík.
Despite the improving situation and the decreasing number of both hospitalisations and new daily cases, the curfew rules remain in place, said Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský (OĽaNO nominee).
This means, under the current rules, that in dark red tier districts, the curfew might be applied from 5:00 to 1:00, while in the remaining districts, only an evening curfew will remain in place.
It is expected that the cabinet will discuss new adjustments to the Covid automat next week, Lengvarský admitted.
Vaccination on the rise
The number of people who have received the first vaccine dose has increased to over 1.5 million, which represents about 21 percent of the population.
The vaccination rate is the highest among the 70-80-year-old age group at 64 percent, but it keeps increasing across the age spectrum, Mišík said. Still, their aim is to achieve at least 80 percent of vaccinated people among the oldest.
The ministry representatives expect the vaccination to speed up after Slovakia receives more than 1.5 million vaccines this month. This includes more than 1 million vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, 134,000 of Moderna, 313,000 of AstraZeneca, and 40,000 of Johnson & Johnson.
It will still not be possible to choose the vaccine, Lengvarský said. This can change only if Slovakia has enough Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in the third quarter of the year, he admitted. He also said that they can soon start administering the vaccine to people older than 50 years (currently, only the 60+ category receives this vaccine).
He also noted that the country still has not received any results from the testing of the Sputnik V vaccine from the Hungarian labs.
Tiers of districts starting May 10
Districts at Warning Level 3 (dark red)
Myjava • Považská Bystrica
Districts at Warning Level 2 (red)
Bánovce nad Bebravou • Banská Bystrica • Banská Štiavnica • Bardejov • Bytča • Čadca • Detva • Dolný Kubín • Gelnica • Humenné • Ilava • Kežmarok • Kysucké Nové Mesto • Levoča • Martin • Medzilaborce • Nové Mesto nad Váhom • Prešov • Revúca • Ružomberok • Sabinov • Sobrance • Stará Ľubovňa • Svidník • Trenčín • Trnava • Turčianske Teplice • Tvrdošín • Veľký Krtíš • Vranov nad Topľou • Žarnovica • Žiar nad Hronom • Zvolen
Districts at Warning Level 1 (light red)
Bratislava I-V • Brezno • Dunajská Streda • Galanta • Hlohovec • Komárno • Košice I-IV • Košice-okolie • Krupina • Levice • Liptovský Mikuláš • Lučenec • Malacky • Michalovce • Námestovo • Nitra • Nové Zámky • Partizánske • Pezinok • Piešťany • Poltár • Poprad • Prievidza • Púchov • Rimavská Sobota • Rožňava • Šaľa • Senec • Senica • Skalica • Snina • Spišská Nová Ves • Stropkov • Topoľčany • Trebišov • Žilina • Zlaté Moravce
