Misik: We're Abandoning COVID Automaton, Measures Will Be Country-wide

Bratislava, January 12 (TASR) – Slovakia is abandoning the COVID automaton; new measures valid from Wednesday, January 19 will apply country-wide, head of the Health Ministry’s Health Analyses Institute (IZA) Matej Misik said on Wednesday, adding that the reason is the speed of the spread of the new mutation and the unpredictability of the situation.

“We’re entering this omicron wave with a relatively high workload in hospitals. There are still around 2,000 COVID-19 patients and as many as 200 need lung ventilation. But compared to last week, the number of cases and hospitalisations continues to decline, so we’re gradually developing space to cope with the incoming wave,” stated Misik.

On average, 135 patients are being admitted to hospitals on a daily basis. Misik pointed out that during the delta wave it was up to 400 patients a day. A total of 4,950 unvaccinated people required hospitalisation per month, while 1,230 vaccinated were admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

More than 2.7 million people have already been vaccinated in Slovakia. More than 1.1 million people have already received a booster shot. In the 60+ age group, 76 percent of those fully vaccinated received a booster shot.