News digest: Health minister suggests how border rules will change on Monday

Good evening. Catch up on the main news of the day in less than five minutes with the Thursday, July 15 edition of Today in Slovakia. We wish you a pleasant read.

Border-crossing rules to change for the partially vaccinated

Vladimír Lengvarský (source: TASR)

Slovakia will not return to the traffic light system that divided foreign countries into green, red and black according to their epidemic situation. This was suggested after the Constitutional Court suspended the effectiveness of the Public Health Authority ordinance to check whether it is in compliance with the Constitution.

Instead, the ministry will propose a similar system with slightly different rules for people vaccinated with one dose of the vaccine. The Constitutional Court's main objection is that the ministry allowed people vaccinated with only the first dose of two-dose vaccines to avoid quarantine, even though the antibodies needed to fight Covid-19 are not created until after the second dose.

From Monday, July 19, when the ordinance becomes effective, fully-vaccinated people should still be able to avoid quarantine while it will remain obligatory for unvaccinated people, as it was set on July 9. Those vaccinated with the first dose of a vaccine will be obliged to enter quarantine, but this may end once they test negative with a PCR test, which can be taken immediately. The precise wording of the new ordinance should be published on July 16.

Coronavirus and vaccination news

(source: TASR)

PCR tests found 29 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday; 5,909 tests were performed that same day. The number of people hospitalised with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases remained unchanged at 105 and one death was confirmed.
The vaccination rate in the marginalised Roma communities and among homeless people against Covid-19 lags behind the Slovak average. "Vaccination with the first dose in such communities, according to the indications from our monitoring, has so far reached a very low level of the national average. Only 42 out of 266 municipalities and towns where the organisation operates directly are above ten percent," said Andrej Belák from Healthy Regions, a budgetary organisation of the Health Ministry.
The outpatient clinic Mlynská Dolina now vaccinates people with the first and second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine without registration. They vaccinate every day between 8:00 and 15:00, with Moderna from Monday to Friday and Pfizer from Saturday to Sunday.

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Photo of the day

(source: TASR)

Tourists bathe in a former quarry near the village Beňatina in the district of Sobrance, in which, after being flooded by groundwater, a lake was created. Thanks to the colour of the water and the environment, the lake reminds visitors of a small Croatia. Despite the ban on swimming on warm summer days, the lake is an attraction for people.

Summertime at Beňatina (9 photos)

Feature story for today

Historian Martin Javor said that it is hard to comprehend what people who left overseas from Slovak territory at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were experiencing back then.

“Disembarking in New York must have been an unbelievable shock, especially when nobody had left the village for 1,000 years,” he opined.

In other news

The Antimonopoly Office initiated administrative proceedings in the matter of acquiring indirect sole control of Geosan Investiční from Kolín, Czech Republic over the company Váhostav SK.
Night storms caused an energy calamity in the area of central Slovakia. More than 30,000 offtake spots had interrupted distributions of electricity for more than three minutes. In the morning, 9,000 offtake spots were still without electricity.
When using Bratislava public transport, it will be necessary to press the button again when boarding and exiting starting on Monday. Currently, the door opens automatically to limit the spread of coronavirus. DPB justifies the change by the improving epidemic situation.
The new Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan replaced the director of the State Forests. Former director Tomáš Čuka was replaced by Tibor Köszeghy.
Trnava-based carmaker Stellantis wrote on social media that it will suspend its production again due to a lack of components. It will not produce on July 16, with the exception of the press shop, and on July 17 and 18.
Investments in the hotel sector in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) reached only €370 million euros last year. This is a slump of 74.2 percent from a record €1.4 billion in 2019. (SITA)