Matovic: Gov't Won't Stress Out Parents with COVID Sworn Statements

Bratislava, August 12 (TASR) – Education minister Branislav Grohling’s (SaS) announcement earlier in the day that parents will need to sign sworn statements to confirm their child is COVID-free at the start of the school year was premature, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) stated during the Government’ session on Wednesday.

According to Matovic, Grohling got ahead of himself.

Originally, it was Health Minister Marek Krajci who reported on Tuesday (August 11) that parents will need to sign a sworn statement to confirm that their child didn’t visit any foreign country prior to the start of school, didn’t take part in mass events with participation of more than 100 people or take part in summer camps with international attendance.

This didn’t sit well with Grohling, who hadn’t been present at Tuesday’s session of the Pandemic Commission. Grohling told journalists earlier on Wednesday that his ministry will table a counter-proposal to make parents sign sworn statements only to the effect that their children show no symptoms of COVID-19. A similar sworn statement was also employed at the end of 2019/20 school year.

“We certainly won’t pass the [Health Ministry-sponsored] motion in the form it was submitted to the Government. We won’t cause chaos, just because people had already planned their vacations in Croatia, Hungary and Austria. It was we who classified these countries as safe [in the first place], so we won’t burden and stress out parents with new duties,” claimed Matovic.

However, the exact wording of the sworn statement template hasn’t been defined yet and thus Grohling got ahead of himself, added Matovic.

The wording still needs to be determined by the Health Ministry in the foreseeable future.