(source: TASR)
Our paywall policy:
The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.
As many as 180,000 people should be tested in 235 sampling places during the pilot nationwide testing scheduled to take place in the Orava Region (the districts of Námestovo, Dolný Kubín and Trebišov) and the Bardejov district during the upcoming weekend of October 23-25.
More than 2,500 soldiers, police officers, firefighters, medical workers and administrative workers should participate.
The main testing will be held the next two weekends, i.e. October 30-November 1 and November 6-8.
“Everyone who will be in Slovakia on these two weekends is invited to take the test at the expense of Slovakia,” said PM Igor Matovič (OĽaNO), adding that foreigners living in Slovakia are also welcomed.
Test or isolation
There should be four medical workers plus one member of the police, army and two representatives of the local municipality present at the sampling site. The representatives of the municipality should be responsible for administration and should not be in physical contact with the tested people, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď told the press conference after the October 20 meeting of the Security Council.
Naď said earlier today that soldiers have already arrived in the regions. They are checking premises suitable for testing and communicating with municipalities about other logistics issues.
Matovič noted that testing should be voluntary, but those who will not participate will be required to stay in isolation 10 days. These people will not be allowed to go out and police may ask to see their negative test result if approached on the street, he continued.
If they do not have it, they can be fined €1,659.
The clients of nursing homes, seniors older than 65 years and immobile patients and other exceptions, which should be specified, will not be required to undergo testing.
Call on medical workers
Health Minister Marek Krajčí (OĽaNO) called on medical staff who will want to help with the testing to register at the Korona.gov.sk website. They will need about 20,000 medical workers, he specified, adding that they will be paid €7 per hour, and those who will take the sampling will get €20 per positive case in their district.
“We will need hundreds to thousands of the medical workers,” Krajčí said. “I would like to ask them to participate and stand on the barricades.”
Security Council met
Commenting on the Security Council session, President Zuzana Čaputová, who initiated the meeting, said that the Armed Forces think about every detail, but they are not the only factor that matters. She reminded that municipalities need more information, too.
Čaputová said that Krajčí assured her that this event will not threaten regular healthcare treatment.
She also said that the testing should be voluntary.
“If someone is penalized, it is not voluntary,” Čaputová added.
