News digest: Employers finally get manual for employee Covid testing

Bratislava starts the Christmas season online and the refurbishment of one of the biggest fountains in Slovakia. Tatra ski resorts have switched on their snow-making machines.

(Source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)

Good afternoon. The weekend is coming and we have prepared a quick summary of the main news of the day in our Friday, November 26, 2021 edition of Today in Slovakia. We wish you a pleasant read.


For weekend tips and reads, check out our Spectacular Slovakia weekly roundup. This week, Peter Dlhopolec is writing about US basketball players in Slovakia, a new book published by the national gallery, and an easy hike.

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A wooden animal observatory called Vydrica was erected in the Small Carpathians between the village of Marianka and Bratislava’s Rača. It is a joint project of the capital, the municipal organisation Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava (MIB) and the municipal forestry company Mestské Lesy v Bratislave (MLB).

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“The unobtrusive observatory, which is sensitively set in the environment, gives visitors the opportunity to enjoy the view of the forest park in peace,” said Matej Dobšovič, director of MLB, as cited in the press release. He asked visitors to approach this place with respect and not to scare the game. “From Vydrica you can observe not only animals but also the gradual transformation of the forest after strong winds into a natural forest.


Photo of today

Bratislava will create a memorial dedicated to the recently deceased singer Miroslav Žbirka. The memorial on Račianske Mýto Square will feature the bench on which Žbirka used to play and sing.


Feature story for today

There is no longer lighting and air conditioning in the dilapidated underground engine hall of the biggest fountain in Bratislava, Družba, on Námestie Slobody Square. Only light from torches and mobile phone screens expose the huge silent pumps and dripstones hanging from the ceiling, some as many as 40 centimetres long. They are the tangible results of the fountain's sieve pools. The leaking water has not only created cave-like decorations but also destroyed the fountain technology and put it out of order in 2007.

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The just-launched refurbishment project with a price tag of €2 million should return the iconic fountain to life within a year. This will be the first overhaul of the fountain since its opening in 1980.

The biggest fountain in Bratislava will gush water again Read more 

Anniversary of today

Piano revolutionary and one of the most figures of European culture Franz (Ferenc) Liszt impressed Bratislava, then Pressburg, at the age of nine, where he gave a concert 201 years ago on November 26, 1820.


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Coronavirus and vaccination news

  • The Economy Ministry issued a manual for employers on testing unvaccinated employees on the afternoon of Friday, November 26. This manual will serve as a guide for employers when testing unvaccinated workers or those who have not recently overcome Covid-19. By Monday, November 29, when the testing begins, employers must procure antigen tests, secure suitable premises and a responsible person, and also take care of the disposal of testing waste.
  • 9, 331 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 26,482 PCR tests performed on November 25. The number of people in hospitals has decreased to 3,162. On Thursday, November 25, 70 more deaths were reported. The vaccination rate is 47.61 percent; 2,618,462 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.
  • The third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has been administered to 334,900 people in Slovakia as of Wednesday, November 24. (ŠÚKL).
  • The coronavirus is spreading especially amongst school-aged children. They account for some 25 percent of all new cases.
  • The new variant of the coronavirus discovered in South Africa has a high number of mutations. This means that it is very different from the original strain SARS-CoV-2 virus, so it is more infectious, but it can also be less deadly, Peter Celec, a doctor and scientist from the Department of Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine Comenius University in Bratislava, told the SITA news wire.
  • Foreigners' Police departments in Slovakia remain open despite the ongoing lockdown.
  • All primary and secondary schools, special schools and kindergartens will remain open despite the lockdown that has been imposed in Slovakia as of November 25. But all after-school activities will be halted around the country and the Christmas holidays will start earlier than planned - the last day of school before the holidays should be Friday, December 17, pending confirmation from the ministry.

Other news

  • Finance Minister Igor Matovič unveiled on Friday afternoon a proposal to pay out a total of €500 million to pandemic-hit businesses operating in the hospitality sector via €500 vouchers granted to vaccinated seniors.
  • Cool enough weather has enabled ski resorts in the High and Low Tatras to switch on their artificial snow machines to cover their slopes.
  • Lidl, as the first retail chain in Slovakia, has decided to cancel the distribution of regular weekly paper leaflets for households. On an annual basis, it will save more than 4,000 tons of paper.
  • Bratislava will launch the Christmas season with a live stream of a Christmas stroll around the city with Bratislava Mayor Matúš Vallo full of untraditional guests and Christmas surprises starting on Friday, November 26 at 18:00. The programme, available at vianoce.bratislava.sk, will include the lighting of the Christmas tree on the Main Square.

Do not miss on Spectator.sk today

Robots as waiters or online winetasting. Innovations slowly making their way to Slovak restaurants Read more  Slovakia resilient to foreign influences, study by top think-tank shows Read more  Lockdown for just two weeks? Forget it, say experts Read more  Related article A day in the life of the Slovak internet Read more  Ice replica of famous Santiago de Compostela Cathedral can be found in the High Tatras Read more 

If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.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.


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