(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
Good evening. The Tuesday, January 4 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes. We wish you a pleasant read.
Children will return to schools, people to the streets at night
Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
There will be two main changes in the currently set rules as of January 10 when the Christmas holidays for pupils and students are officially over.
The School Covid traffic light system will apply to schools again. Schools should not be closed in the entire country, but only individual classes will quarantine once there a positive case is detected.
Pupils and students will be obliged to wear masks and there will be the possibility of self-testing. The Education Ministry will provide the tests.
The second change is the end of the night curfew as of January 10. This does not mean the end of the national emergency.
The curfew now applies between 20:00 and 5:00 of the following day.
There is no major change in other currently valid rules. Vaccinated and recovered people still have advantages when entering shops, and hotels and restaurants.
More coronavirus and vaccination news
Woman received a vaccine in Trebišov (source: TASR)
3,579 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 15,324 PCR tests performed on Monday. The number of people in hospitals is 2,267 people. 48 more deaths were reported on Monday. Altogether 2,745,593 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.
Since the start of the pandemic, almost 1,400 children up to age 18 were hospitalised with Covid, according to the Science Helps initiative. 20 were on a lung ventilator and 12 children died. In Slovakia, there are about a million children up to 18.
More than a million people in Slovakia have already received a booster dose of the vaccine.2,590,147 people are fully vaccinated and 2,745,593 received the first dose.
The highest number of hospitalised patients are in the age group of 65 and over. 866 of patients in this age group are unvaccinated and 228 are fully vaccinated. (NCZI)
One third of companies are actively motivating employees to get vaccinated, information stemming from the poll of ČSOB bank and Datank company. The smaller the company, the bigger their activity towards supporting vaccination. 38 percent of the solicited companies actively motivate employees to get vaccinated, cooperate with the vaccination unit, some getting vaccinated at the workplace. 54 percent carry out these activities among the smallest companies, while only 42 percent of middle-sized companies and about 35 percent of big companies do so.
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Photo of the day
Petra Vlhová won the slalom in Zagreb, Croatia and increased her lead in this discipline in the World Cup.
(source: TASR)
Feature story for today
Slovakia’s population is shrinking and ageing. While this means an increasing pressure on public finances, the growing demand for caretaking services may be viewed as a business opportunity.
In other news
Employers published record numbers of job vacancies in 2021, stated the job portal Profesia.sk. While in 2020 employers published the lowest number of job offers in many years, in 2021 companies published a total of 292,838 job advertisements in the last year. This is the highest number in the 24-year history of the largest job portal in Slovakia.
The Slovak company InoBat Auto has acquired another investor, the US company Ideanomics Mobility. Following investments from Rio Tinto and Amara Raja, this is another global company to invest in the company. "The goal of the cooperation is to support stable production, as well as the joint development and commercialisation of various types of battery cells for the US market," said InoBat Auto.
As many as 152,902 foreign nationals have a residence permit in Slovakia, according to official statistics. This accounts for about 2.8 percent of the country’s population.
In the interdepartmental review procedure, the General Prosecutor's Office submitted 35 fundamental comments on the draft agreement on defence cooperation between Slovakia and the US. The General Prosecutor's Office rejects the draft agreement as a whole.
Forecasts for the automotive sector for this year are not optimistic. According to the analysis of the global company Expense Reduction Analysts, not just companies from the automotive sector and related industries will face problems, but basically every company that needs mobility.
By January 6, more than 500 enclosures for Christmas trees will be added to the streets of Bratislava. The removal of the trees will start on January 10, the last removal to take place on February 11. Sites for collecting Christmas trees can be viewed at www.olo.sk/stromceky.
Do not miss on Spectator.sk today
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