Closed hotel in Piešťany, illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
Will there be a lockdown? This week, the whole country is living in expectation of what the new measures will be like. Meanwhile, hotels and other accommodation facilities in black-tier districts remain closed.
A few weeks ago, the government suggested that people vaccinated against Covid may be able to book rooms even in the black tier, where accommodation facilities need to be closed for everyone for now. After November 23, the proposal is off the table. The number of hospitalised patients reached 3,200 on that day, the critical point after which the ministry estimates hospitals will no longer be able to provide other health care other than treating Covid patients and urgent cases.
PM Eduard Heger promised on November 18 that the measures would be implemented for three weeks, when he first presented what he called the "lockdown for the unvaccinated", a set of stricter measures for the unvaccinated that partly affect the vaccinated. If the situation in hospitals improves, new measures will be put forward with more freedom for those immunised against Covid.
The operators of accommodation facilities say that this is not enough. They do not know whether they will be able open this year at all, whether they should prepare for holidaymakers this winter for popular post-Christmas stays; and they remind the government that though their businesses were forced to close, they have received no compensation for their losses.
“Open borders allow people to travel for holidays and relax in neighbouring countries – Czechia, Hungary or Poland as well as other countries,” said Marek Harbuľák, President of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Slovakia. “The approved measures are causing economic damage to tourism entrepreneurs in Slovakia, which could have been prevented.”
