Sulik Preparing Own Pandemic Plan, Proposes Local Measures

Bratislava, November 18 (TASR) – Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Richard Sulik (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) is preparing, along with experts, his own pandemic plan that he intends to present in the next few days.

The document should contain a set of measures in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. However, they won’t apply to the whole of Slovakia, but to individual localities, depending on how serious the situation is in them. “Where there is a problem, we’ll adopt suitable measures. These could even be a lockdown and shutting down all possible outlets, [but] it makes no sense to introduce harsh measures where there isn’t a problem,” said Sulik before the Cabinet session on Wednesday.

The plan will take the form of an SaS party proposal, and the party want to use it to set out criteria according to which a certain score would be calculated. A second step will involve dividing up the country, whether based on districts or other territorial division criteria, said Sulik. Thirdly, there’s a need to determine what measures will apply to which region depending on the score.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) called on Sulik to present by Sunday (November 15) an alternative plan for meeting epidemiologists’ condition that the number of daily coronavirus positive cases should be reduced below 500 so that schools and restaurants can be reopened as of late November. On Monday (November 16), he criticised Sulik on a social network for failing to do so.

Sulik reacted on Wednesday by stating that he began work on the plan even before his holiday in Dubai last week. However, he doesn’t believe that the deadline for him to meet the task should have been November 15, as Matovic knew that he was on holiday and would only return on that day. Sulik believes that SaS should have its plan ready by next Sunday (November 22), and, even if it doesn’t, “it’s important to give preference to quality”.