Chief Hygienist: Elderly Banned from Shopping Outside Special Hours

Bratislava, April 21 (TASR) – The government-imposed special shopping hours for the elderly, now shortened by an hour to 9-11 a.m. on work days, mean that people aged 65 and more are forbidden to shop at any other time, said Slovakia’s chief hygienist Jan Mikas after a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Team on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) earlier in the day merely said that the elderly are “strongly asked to shop only during this time”.

However, Mikas in the evening claimed that the original resolution on the introduction of priority shopping hours for the elderly, adopted in late March, also contained a ban for them to shop at any other time.

“If they don’t use this specific time window, they’ll be gambling with their health and their own lives,” said Mikas, adding that there will also be inspections into possible violations of the ban.