On Monday, Slovakia commemorates for the first time the Day of the Victims of the COVID-19 Pandemic, one of the two new commemorative days introduced by last year's amendment to the Act on Public Holidays.
According to the petitioners, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the lives of people not only in Slovakia, but around the world. It has caused the greatest trauma to the families from whom it has taken their loved ones. The date of 6 March was chosen because on 6 March 2020, the first case of infection with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, was confirmed in Slovakia. A 52-year-old man from Kostoliště, near Malacky, was infected. One month later, on 6 April 2020, the first two deaths from COVID-19 were confirmed. Since then, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than 21,000 people in Slovakia, with thousands more dying due to limited white medicine. In January this year, the Slovak Prosecutor General's Office announced that it would investigate whether there had been any acts or omissions for which someone should be held criminally liable in connection with the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia.
The world's first person with SARS-CoV-2 was a 55-year-old man from China's Hubei province, who contracted the virus back on 17 November 2019. It was from that province's capital, Wuhan, that the deadly coronavirus gradually spread around the world and caused the pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it has already claimed nearly 7 million victims worldwide.
Source: TASR
