September will be a key month in terms of indicating the further development of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Slovakia, according to Chief Hygienist Ján Mikas. "September will be a trial period. We will see the impact of the return of people to work and school. It will tell us what the next developments could be. The numbers are getting bigger, they're not the values we're used to", said the chief hygienist, acknowledging a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. The Central Crisis Committee and the Council of Experts will be discussing the situation this week.
On Monday the Chief Hygienist met with leaders of several sports organisations as well as with the State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Ivan Husar, and the government representative for Youth and Sport, Karol Kučera. Together they discussed the organisation of mass gatherings, the appropriate number of spectators at sports events, quarantine rules for athletes, and financial support for sports. Kučera would like to see sports events resume in September, with at least 50 percent audience capacity. Mikas pointed out that everything depends on the organisers and on the fans. "If the fans deliberately join together to form one big group, the precautions we took won't matter. They will lose their effect and this will be harmful to the whole sport", he said.
