(source: Sme)
People who have been vaccinated against Covid enjoy an exception from testing, but when crossing borders they are treated like anyone else.
Two weeks after a person has had their second Covid vaccine dose, they are considered fully vaccinated. There were about 10,000 such people in Slovakia at the beginning of February 2021. They are enjoying the benefit of not having to receive testing to gain exception from the curfew, which applies in Slovakia as part of the ongoing mass testing. Instead of a negative test result, they just use their vaccination confirmation. The basic anti-pandemic measures, like wearing the mask, apply to them just like to everyone else; including the crossing of the country's borders.
Vaccinated or not, people arriving to Slovakia either have to show their negative Covid test result or go into self-isolation upon arrival and take a swab five days later.
This is not about to change soon. The Slovak authorities are not pondering any changes, saying that they support the European approach when it comes to crossing borders. Slovakia may re-consider this approach if many EU member states and especially its neighbours apply national rules.
The issue of scrapping the testing and/or quarantine obligations for vaccinated persons is not on the table at the EU level.
“As long as we do not have the necessary data to see if vaccinated people are immune enough and do not spread the infection further, several member states choose a wait-and-see approach,” State Secretary of Slovakia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, Martin Klus, told The Slovak Spectator.
Most EU countries waiting
Such data will only be available a few months into the vaccination roll-out.
Slovakia will support the common proposal that will ease the free movement of people in the EU and cross-border mobility, to bring people in Europe closer to normal, Klus said.
