Pellegrini: Slovakia Ready to Deal with Extensive Coronavirus Epidemic

Ruzomberok, February 10 (TASR) – Slovakia and its Armed Forces are ready to cope with an extensive coronavirus epidemic, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stated after inspecting the Central Military Hospital (UVN) in Ruzomberok (Zilina region), its field hospital and meeting the UVN management on Monday.

If there is an extensive epidemic, the Armed Forces will deploy a mobile hospital. “As of today the Armed Forces have almost 500 health-care employees that they can immediately deploy to tackle such situations. At the same time we have a mobile hospital that we are able to roll out on a specific area in three days – in the first stage it has a capacity of 40 beds and can be potentially expanded by an additional 30 – and build a mobile hospital with 70 beds,” said Pellegrini.

“If there is a need to deal with dozens to hundreds of infected people and a need to isolate them, we’re ready to build a mobile hospital in Lest military training zone (Banska Bystrica region) and in Malacky military area (Bratislava region). Additional accommodation capacities are available to us in Lest. The Armed Forces are currently able to create a hermetically sealed isolated and monitored town with a capacity of up to 2,000 people,” stated the prime minister.

According to Defence Minister Peter Gajdos (Slovak National Party/SNS), the options for a field hospital are currently limited, as it is designed for a state of war with an emphasis on surgery and treatment. “In terms of a peaceful situation and infectology, the hospital needs to be adapted to address crises. In this case we would like to make use of the Zahorie and Lest military training areas, as well as Kuchyna and Sliac airports. So we’re declaring our readiness to help if necessary,” stressed Gajdos.

A total of 31 patients have been tested for coronavirus so far, but the disease hasn’t been confirmed in any of them.