(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
This is the Monday, May 31, 2021 edition of Today in Slovakia.
In today's digest:
For a more in-depth view of the week’s events, check out the latest Last Week in Slovakia overview published earlier today. You can also sign up for the weekly newsletter with one click here.
New travelling rules come into force
Slovakia follows a new traffic light system for travelling from Monday, May 31 morning.
Today in Slovakia news digest is a free-of-charge service for our readers. If you want to support us, become a subscriber and get access to more detailed news and interesting feature stories from Slovakia.
The countries will now be divided in three tiers (green, red and black), following different rules for self-isolation when crossing the Slovak borders. The most liberations are given to incomers from green countries, including those who have been vaccinated and recovered from Covid.
At the same time, more districts across Slovakia are lifting the measures. 24 districts switched to the yellow tier, where the regime is the most relaxed, from Monday, including all districts of Bratislava. Another 41 districts are in the orange tier.
This means, among other things, that people can wear masks both inside and outside (but respirators are still recommended for interiors and public transport). At the same time, it will be possible to eat inside a restaurant, following certain restrictions.
Another 11 districts will be in the light red tier, and three will be in the red tier, where the regime is the strictest.
More Covid and vaccination developments
The PCR tests carried out on May 30 revealed 31 positive cases out of a total of 1,309 (3.41 percent), while out of 65,231 antigen tests 111 were positive (0.14 percent). Four more people died of Covid, increasing the total number to 12,343.
Poland, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia will accept Slovakia’s vaccination certificates, which have been issued since May 22. Earlier, the certificates were already recognised by Austria and the Czech Republic. You can check the travelling conditions to selected countries here.
Slovakia will pay about €5.6 billion for the pandemic, which represents €1,260 per adult person, according to the Value for Money Unit. The best way to reduce costs is vaccination, the unit added.
The agreements signed between the Health Ministry and the mobile testing sites will expire in late June, which is why the ministry plans to announce a new competition. The number of testing sites should reflect the current pandemic situation, and considers taking samples for both antigen and PCR tests at one spot.
SIS report leaked online
Illustrative stock photo (source: SITA/Police SR)
Pictures from the confidential report authored by the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency leaked online during the weekend.
The National Security Authority (NBÚ) subsequently published a warning against distributing and giving publicity to the document through various mobile and desktop apps on Facebook. It claimed that the document was confidential, and that there might be penalties.
The report was presented in the parliament last Wednesday by Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár (Sme Rodina), with the session closed to the public.
According to the media reports, the report suggested that there are some universal witnesses who are lying during police interrogations. It thus casts doubt on some detainees who have been cooperating with the police. The leaked document claims that the instructions to those witnesses are given by the police officers, meaning that they could be providing false statements. While the detainees are doing it to have their sentence reduced, the report does not name the motives of police officers. Moreover, the evidence is missing, the Denník N daily reported.
The representatives of law enforcement bodies and Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OĽaNO) have rejected claims about the alleged attempts to manipulate investigations.
Kollár even said that Mikulec informed him about creating a special team to look into the report’s findings.
Largest in business
Which HR company is the largest in Slovakia? Which generated the most profit and which had the most employees? And how has the pandemic impacted the recruitment and executive search sectors?
Explore Slovak labour market and human resource trends (for more details visit shop.spectator.sk)
The answers are provided in the latest rankings of HR companies compiled by The Slovak Spectator, which offer a closer look at the largest employment agencies and executive search firms active in Slovakia and how they fared in the pandemic year of 2020.
“The pandemic has had a deep impact on our attitude towards work, planning and the management of people,” said Zuzana Rumiz, country manager at ManpowerGroup Slovensko, the biggest HR company in Slovakia which also ranked first in the the recruitment agencies category.
For the first time, Executive Search rankings are part of the Career and Employment Guide as well.
Picture of the day
Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan won the points classification of this year's Giro d'Italia cycling race.
Slovakia's Peter Sagan sprays champagne from the podium after the final stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, a 30.3 kilometers individual time trial from Senago to Milan, Italy on May 30, 2021. (source: AP/TASR)
Feature story for today
Carmaker Volkswagen Slovakia is celebrating the30th anniversary of its arrival in Slovakia. President Zuzana Čaputová paid a visit to the plant in Bratislava on Monday.
One of the key people linked to the plant in Bratislava is Jozef Uhrík, who was a member of the top management of Volkswagen Slovakia until 2005, and played an instrumental role in building the automotive industry in Slovakia. Read about him in our archive story.
In other news
People in Slovakia see Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský (OĽaNO nominee) as the most trustworthy cabinet member. On the other hand, Finance Minister Igor Matovič is both the least trusted and the most distrusted member of the cabinet, the recent Focus poll showed.
The Transport Ministry has given a green light to subsidies for 37 district and seven regional tourism organisations, amounting to €8.2 million in total.
The Defence Ministry will pay more than €2.6 million to the Russian company RSK MiG for damages caused by the MiG-29 fighter jet that crashed during a training flight in 2019, as stems from an agreement on damage compensation published in the Central Register of Contracts.
Košice airport restored flights to Doncaster Sheffield operated by Wizzair on May 28, and plans to launch flights to Prague on June 2.
Exercise prices from the sale of dwellings slowed down in year-on-year growth, and even decreased compared to the end of last year. The prices at which real estates were actually sold were higher by 2 percent annually, while the growth rate of prices was lower than during 2020, when price increases in individual quarters ranged from 7.3 percent to 13.1 percent. (Statistics Office)
The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute issued a first-level warning against low temperatures for nearly all Slovakia for Tuesday morning, except for some southwestern and southeastern districts.
More on Spectator.sk
If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
