Krajci: Schools in Slovakia Won't Reopen as of February 1

Bratislava, January 28 (TASR) – Schools in Slovakia won’t reopen as of February 1, said Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLANO) after a meeting of the Government’s COVID-19 advisory team on Thursday.

Pupils of primary and secondary schools will continue in distance learning, while nursery schools will be open only for children of parents working in critical infrastructure and those who can’t work from home.

“Any easing of existing measures would be irresponsible at the moment,” said Krajci, adding that hospital figures aren’t falling.

Education Minister Branislav Groehling (SaS) said that he believes that nursery schools and primary schools could be reopened as of February 8. At the same time there are no considerations to make pupils repeat the school year, said the minister. Neither are they considering cancellation of the spring school holidays, he added.

Remisova: Countrywide Testing Doesn’t Bring Promised Benefits

Governing-coalition parties that supported the countrywide ‘screening testing’ for coronavirus in Slovakia last week promised that this would significantly improve the situation in the country and schools would be reopened as of February 1, Informatisation Minister Veronika Remisova (For the People) complained after the announcement made by Krajci.

Remisova was the only Cabinet member to vote against the countrywide testing.

“If the pandemic situation hasn’t improved, this means that the countrywide testing doesn’t bring the expected benefits,” said Remisova. She added that it would therefore be appropriate to review the obligation of mass testing included in the automatic system of virus containment measures due to be launched soon.