Slovakia Approves New Pandemic Plan

Bratislava, August 11 (TASR) – The Slovak Government’s Pandemic Committee approved a pandemic plan at its session held at the Health Ministry on Tuesday, Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLaNO) announced at a press conference on the same day.

It was only on its second attempt that the Committee passed the plan, the original version of which had been turned down in late July by experts due to a number of objections. The aim of the material is to help Slovakia navigate its way through not only the pandemic of novel coronavirus but also the outbreak of any other respiratory illness in the future.

Under the new pandemic plan, health authorities will no longer focus on calculating the moving average of cases but rather take into account other factors such as the number of available hospital beds or departments.

In addition, the plan re-classifies symptoms of COVID-19 infection, adding also the loss of smell or taste to the set of indicators that already contain cough, respiratory troubles and fever above 38 degrees Celsius.

The plan also defines six stages of the outbreak.