Deputy Prime Minister Štefan Holý refuses to say whether he came back from his personal visit to the UK in December with a negative test result for COVID-19. In recent days, media have been speculating whether Holý might have infected five government members as a result of not following measures aimed at stopping the spread of the virus.
As the Denník N wrote, ministers assumed that they became infected at one of the government sessions which took place on December 14 and 16. On December 13, Holý came back from his personal visit to his family in the UK.
However, Holý did not answer the additional questions as to whether he had a fresh PCR test or an exemption over the following three weeks. However, on January 8, the Office of the Chief Hygienist confirmed that Holý had an exception, and therefore neither quarantine nor a new PCR test were mandatory for him at that time. The exemption was to apply to him from November 20. One day later, Holý stated that the exemption no longer applied to him and was only a one-off.
The chief hygienist Ján Mikas neither confirmed that Holý was granted an one-off exemption nor explained the reason for granting it. In the reaction, his office explained that it is not competent to verify the seriousness of each of the hundreds of reasons stated in the applications, it is a decision made by members of the government.
