The current lockdown will be partially lifted at the earliest possible opportunity, but only for the vaccinated and those who have overcome COVID-19, informed the council of experts. "Out of ten patients in hospitals, about eight are unvaccinated, warned Health Analysis Institute director Matej Mišík. "The lockdown is just a temporary, last resort, it's not a long-term solution. If we wish to find a way out of the pandemic, we need to step up the vaccination rate significantly - by about 30%," stated consilium member Alena Koščálová.
As of Wednesday, altogether 47.61% of the population had been vaccinated in Slovakia. 6,4% had received a third vaccine jab, 36.5% have two shots and 5.1% have one jab only.
The Health Ministry officially launched registration for the third dose of the vaccine against coronavirus on October 13.
The largest opposition Smer-SD party plans to initiate an extraordinary house session on pandemic measures. The party chair Robert Fico, criticizes the current lockdown as a "half-cooked" measure, which will not prevent further growth in the number of infected people and victims. He criticized the fact the children continue to attend schools and the streets of capital are still bustling. On the other hand, Fico and his Smer-SD party recently initiated two mass protests with the attendance of thousands of people. The one in the capital took place on November 17, the one in south-central Slovak town of Rimavská Sobota was on October 17.
