Hygienists and police control epidemic measures in Trenčín. (source: TASR)
Only vaccinated people will be allowed inside restaurants in black-tier districts with the hope of avoiding a dramatic increase in the number of people newly infected with Covid. The vaccination rate could increase significantly in these districts as unvaccinated people will have less freedom.
While this proposal, agreed on by the four leaders of the coalition parties on Monday, sounds attractive to the vaccinated and motivating for the unvaccinated, experts are not certain it will work.
The full vaccination rate in Slovakia still remains low, despite the fact that dozens of deaths are recorded per day and more than 2,000 unvaccinated patients are in hospitals. Only some 45 percent of the population has received both doses.
“If we have a vaccination rate like Africa, we will not stagger out of the pandemic. Our hospitals will remain overwhelmed and we will have, unnecessarily, too many deaths,” said infectologist Peter Sabaka.
Epidemiologists, doctors and analysts consider the best changes approved by the coalition those that give the police and hygienists the necessary tools to more effectively enforce anti-pandemic measures.
On the other hand, they consider the decision not to require Covid passes in the workplace a step backward.
“It is a half solution which will not have an effect,” Sabaka said. “It will not save us from catastrophe because we are currently at its edge.”
