The opinion on the so-called COVID-automat traffic light system, introducing automatic measures against the spread of coronavirus according to certain data as of February 8, has not changed within the coalition, said Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovič. This was his reaction to the calls to change it. According to the automat, exceptions from the curfew would apply for those with a negative result from an antigen test, which has lower accuracy. Moreover, it is not clear, if the test result should be 7 or 14 days old.
According to the Denník N daily, this means that Slovakia is ahead of a series of further mass testings and applying the automat would mean repeating the same step as in the autumn. At that time, people with results from less accurate antigen tests were free to move. Subsequently, the pandemic situation worsened. Nevertheless, the exceptions from curfew were not the only factor in the development. The daily stressed that Slovakia is currently facing a record number of hospitalisations and is now facing the stronger British mutant.
Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár said that the individual parameters of the COVID-automat should only be changed by experts, not politicians.
Moreover, on Monday,Slovak Health Minister Maroš Krajčí said that he current lockdown is not working to help sufficiently slow down the spread of COVID-19 and said that he is also considering tightening up the measures. The growth in the number of patients hospitalized with the disease is not too high, but the Minister does not know how long our hospitals will last. Krajčí ordered the chief hygienist to immediately start checking PCR tests to find out the extent of the presence of the British mutant and where it is in Slovakia. According to the Minister, the curfew could be tightened with a person having to send a text to the headquarters when leaving the household, which would have to confirm the reason for leaving the household, and only for a certain period of time. The text messages would be checked by the police.
