(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
Good evening. Here is the Wednesday, January 4 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Second wave of flu to hit soon
People waiting in line in front of a pharmacy in Bratislava due to increase of respiratory disease cases. (source: TASR)
This year's flu season is the first in the last three years when people did not have to wear masks and respirators, or face restrictions on their movements during lockdowns. Measures put in place to slow the spread of Covid-19 also prevented the spread of other respiratory diseases, leaving people possibly more susceptible to them now, experts suggest.
At the end of last year, the number of flu cases was so high that hygienists began talking of a nationwide epidemic.
Now, the Public Health Office expects a second wave of flu in January or February. In recent years, infections were higher in the second wave. What can we expect in this second wave? What can we do if there is a shortage of medicines? How can we lower a fever?
More stories on Spectator.sk
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Feature story for today
Cybersecurity company Eset is one of Slovakia's most successful companies. In the past, it has had negative run-ins with the Russian regime. "Of course, they do not like us revealing their criminal activities," the company's founder and co-owner Miroslav Trnka reveals in an interview.
But it also faces hateful and offensive narratives from parts of Slovakia's political scene. This, explains Trnka, is the biggest threat to the future of the company in Slovakia.
Picture of the day
Christmas trees are getting a second chance in Bratislava. The municipal waste management company Odvod a Likvidácia Odpadu (OLO) has started picking up discarded trees from wooden pens throughout the capital. Follow this link to find out how they will be reused.
(source: TASR)
In other news
Prices of gas supplies for households and selected vulnerable customers will increase by less than 16 percent on average in 2023 thanks to extraordinary measures taken by the Government, according to the Office for the Regulation Network Industries.
The construction of a new Bratislava University Hospital in the Razsochy area might start in the second quarter of 2024, according to a draft project submitted by the Health Ministry for an environmental impact assessment. The preliminary cost of the construction work is €263 million. Meanwhile, the financial group Penta's new hospital in Bratislava's Bory district will only completely open in autumn this year. On Wednesday, it received a permit to operate.
Increased energy prices are a problem for the Slovak Academy of Sciences too, says its head, Pavol Šajgalík. The academy has a lot of experimental workplaces that require increased energy input.
After the failure to approve a city budget for 2023, both buses and trams in Košice will operate a holiday timetable after January 9, until further notice.
Acting Prime Minister Eduard Heger will attend the funeral of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday, January 5.
Slovakia is starting to draw new Eurofunds, with the first call for projects vying for almost €13 billion in total set to focus on the development of regions, schools, sports facilities, roads, and thermal cladding for houses.
In the last 12 months, more than 50,000 people signed an appeal to limit dangerous pyrotechnics in the last 12 months, with the most signatures in one day coming just after the New Year's Eve, according to the non-parliamentary party Progressive Slovakia. The party is calling for a ban on dangerous retail pyrotechnics.
If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
