Gov't to Introduce €5,000 Fines for Quarantine Dodgers

Bratislava, July 13 (TASR) – A fine up to €5,000 will be imposed on any individual who returns from an ‘at risk’ COVID-19 country but fails to go into quarantine, according to a bill approved by the Government on Monday.

The legislation is to be submitted to Parliament via a fast-tracked procedure.
Furthermore, the bill will introduce additional monitoring of individuals who are required to report to the Public Health Office following their return from ‘red countries’. “The bill aims to have telephone operators provide the Public Health Office with the telephone numbers of clients who received SMS texts because they were located in a dangerous country and came back to Slovakia within a specified period. In addition, as part of general cooperation, operators are required to process and provide the Public Health Office with anonymous data even without the consent of the parties involved,” reads the text.

According to Transport Minister Andrej Dolezal (a We Are Family nominee), the Public Health Office will be required to delete the telephone numbers after they have been processed and also to submit a report to the House constitutional committee regarding the purpose for which the data was used.

Operators will be allowed to process certain data, such as identifications and connections of individuals to networks as well as their locations and collect, process and store the data for a maximum of 60 days. “The Public Health Office is authorised to acquire the data exclusively with an eye towards preventing the outbreak of a pandemic or dangerous communicable human disease,” reads the text.

The measures will also be applied to those who have only transited a ‘red country’.