Unofficial Translation
Press Conference on current epidemiological situation 23 March 2021
Minister Heger
Ladies and gentlemen, the fight with the pandemic is ongoing and at this moment, I can say we are doing good. If last week I said it was a week of good news, I am happy that this week I can also say that the good news are still continuing. We have two weapons to use against the virus – the first one used predominantly during the first wave are the restrictive measures, and I am grateful to all of you for respecting these measures, because also thanks to you today we can present the good news. The second weapon is the vaccination, and I am happy I can say that vaccination process is fully running. The situation is improving, and this is thanks to these two weapons – people obeying the rules and the vaccination, and these measures are working even when we have a wide prevalence of British mutation in Slovakia, so I again thank to you all.
Now I will give floor to my colleagues to get you through the data on the pandemic situation.
State Secretary Stachura
Good afternoon. Let me present the epidemiological situation of Slovakia. What the Minister already said can be visible also at this graph, where you can see that Slovakia, unlike most of its neighbors, sees a decreasing trend in the number of positive cases. The curve is decreasing both in terms of PCR and antigen tests. This is success thanks to all of you – all of you who wear the FFP2 masks despite of breathing difficulties, keeping distances, and respecting all epidemiological measures. Finally, this is all already visible on our graph.
This good news is also shown in all other parameters that we are regularly following – such as 14-day incidence, number of hospitalized, daily deaths rate or reproductive number. I do not want you to get totally euphoric about these numbers and lose cautiousness, but these figures point to a positive direction.
When it comes to the situation in hospitals and the number of hospitalizations, let me show you this graph, which you do not yet know. The green line is important – this is an absolute increment or decrease in hospitalizations in our hospitals. When the line is getting near the value of zero, it means that the number of hospitalizations in not increasing nor decreasing.
As you see, in recent period, we even managed to get under this level – that means that the number of released patients or those who, unfortunately, succumbed to Covid-19 decease, is higher than the number of newly accepted patients.
When it comes to free capacities of hospital beds in Slovakia, mainly the oxygen beds, there is a slight improvement. Currently we have 3300 beds that are taken by Covid patients.
However, as you see, the tiniest availability stays for the beds with artificial lung ventilation, which still remains a problem, but we expect that this number too will start to improve in upcoming days or weeks.
I will now give floor to the State Secretary Ježíkova to continue with the vaccination topic.
State Secretary Ježíkova
Good afternoon. I will now comment on this second weapon that we have against the virus, the vaccination. You already know this table – we regularly inform you about how many vaccines were delivered to Slovakia and how many we expect to come in the short period.
Here are the vaccines currently used in Slovakia – Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. You see Pfizer is continuing with expected deliveries of about 51 000 a week. In upcoming period, in two weeks, we anticipate 72 000 doses to be delivered weekly. Pfizer is thus a stable partner when it comes to the deliveries. When it comes to Moderna, we already see an increasing trend in deliveries and we are starting to administer about 3200 doses a week. When it comes to AstraZeneca, we seen rapid decrease in deliveries in past two weeks, from 100 000 to 12 000 a week, but already in two weeks we will receive more than 100 000, so the trend will be again increasing.
We still see a significantly increasing trend in the numbers of vaccinated persons. Currently, 785 049 doses were already administered, out of which 241 259 people already received a second dose and around 500 000 at least the first dose. When you look at the map of Slovakia, there are slight differences among regions. With Minister, we visited the large capacity centers in several regional cities on weekend, and some of them still have decreased capacity as they just opened, but we expect these regions to get on equal levels in upcoming weeks in the percentages of their vaccinated population.
When it comes to vaccination in social service facilities, which is very important for us, the percentage of vaccinated is increasing from week to week. At the moment, already 60% of all social service facilities’ clients received at least the first dose and 29% the second dose already.
Let me now present the third weapon in fight against the virus, the so-called monoclonal antibodies. We have not presented this here yet, and this is the first time that we provide this information to the public. If you follow the situation abroad, you see that these monoclonal antibodies are also becoming one of the weapons against the disease, as the character of these antibodies is designed to provide the passive immunity, by giving body the antibodies to protect itself. The vaccinating substance gives you the active immunity by helping body to create those antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are good in providing the help very fast. For vaccine you need certain period for you body to create antibodies to fight against the disease.
With monoclonal antibodies the start of immunity is relatively fast.
Currently, Slovakia is in process of procuring two types of antibodies. The first is Bamlanivimab, which is the infusion given in hospital environment, and same as the second one, Regeneron, it is administered to patient in a very early stage of the disease, when there are still very light symptoms of the virus, and when such patient does not need oxygen treatment yet, and it is being administered to persons, for whom it can be assumed that the course of disease could have fatal consequences for them. These should be people with BMI of more than 40, people after transplantation of organs or bone marrow, patients with ongoing oncological treatment, etc., thus people who could experience very serious consequences of Covid-19 disease.
Currently, both these substances are in the evaluation process of EMA. Bamlanivimab is already being used in Hungary and Czech Republic - Hungary ordered 60 000 pieces and Czech Republic 12 000. We, as the Slovak Republic, negotiate directly with the Slovak branch of company Eli Lilly and we are interested in buying 15 000 doses of this medicine. This is exceptionally good news for Slovak patients. When it comes to the second substance,
Regeneron, there we are in the process of joint procurement by the European Commission.
The contract has already been confirmed and is awaiting approval at the European level. There we ordered 5000 packages.
There is one more substance, which is polyclonal –the hyperimmune globulin. This is a substance extracted directly from the blood plasma of a person who has overcome a coronavirus or a person who has been vaccinated. Here we are in negotiations with a company Takeda, which is in association with several companies offering this substance. This association has offered us several doses for free as a gift, and we are in process of expecting negotiations, as this company will have to tell us based on which distribution key it will provide these substances, and it will also assess the epidemiological situation in countries when taking such decision.
These are all good news, thank you very much.
State Secretary Stachura
We will continue with the evaluation of Slovakia as a country, on the basis of Covid Automat system. Unfortunately, we still have to confirm that according to Covid Automat, the whole territory of Slovakia still remains in black color. This is because the level of hospitalizations has still not decreased under the level of 3000. Only then we will be able to change the color of Slovakia to other than black color. Other two criteria are quite positive. The number of new cases has fallen under the level of 4000, and the reproduction number also has positive values.
Minister of Finance Eduard Heger
I would like to draw your attention to the middle graph. As I said in beginning, we have two weapons. One is the restrictive measures that people need to follow and the second is the
vaccination, for which we still need to wait a little bit. The first weapon is very effective too, and thanks to following the rules we can get to the level of 3000 of new cases and lower. I hope this is a motivation for all of you to push this curve down. If we gave up on this weapon and relaxed the measures, as we see in neighboring countries, our curve would start increasing again. Currently, obeying the rules is the most effective way to improve our situation.
This is the map used for this week.
And here you can see the map for next week. The districts with green dots represent the districts that improved their color compared to this week, however, we also see that there are districts with red dots, which have worsened compared to this week. This is why the responsible behavior is very important if we want to see more and more green dots on this map.
Thank you very much.
Questions:
Q: I want to ask about the antibodies treatment that you presented. When could it be used?
SS Jezikova: I think we are the furthest in the negotiations with the substance Bamlanivimab, as there we negotiate directly with the Slovak branch of the company. We are currently negotiating an agreement, so I hope the negotiations will be successful. If everything went well, it could be already in April. When it comes to Regeneron, we are participating in negotiation process at the level of EU already for several months, and the status of negotiations is also close to signing the agreement. As for the polyclonal antibody globulin, we are waiting for the step from the alliance and they will inform us how they divided their substances. We had deadline until 15 March to show interest, we expressed it, and the alliance confirmed they received our message, and we are now waiting for their reaction.
Q: Is it possible to make these processes easier so patients could already have access to these treatments, in lets say summer?
SS Jezikova: I am afraid to state any deadlines, but as this third weapon is very important, and all countries need it, and some countries even already use it as unregistered medicine, as I mentioned Hungary or Czech Republic, so we could start using Bamlanivimab already in April, and when it comes to Regeneron, the European Commission will act, and I do not think we will wait for too long.
Q: So it can be used as unregistered medicine?
SS Jezikova: Some countries use it as unregistered medicine. When it comes to hyperimmune globulin, there is a condition that it will be used only after registration.
Q: Are you going to take any stricter measures during Easter?
MH: We have to realize that we have the measures set quite strictly in Slovakia already. I am happy that we did not have to proceed last week to closing of our economy. We are still not out of trouble though. We need to get under the level of 3000 new cases, as a baseline, and from there continue to decrease out numbers more and more profoundly. Measures are effectively set at the moment. We just need to realize this is our joint responsibility and continue to follow them.
Q: So people can expect they will not be able to travel beyond the district, or can they anticipate any further restrictions?
MH: All depends also on the map we will show next week. But the rules are strictly defined by the Covid Automat system. We will see next week, I hope we will again be able to present good news. If we manage to get our numbers further down we might turn into dark red color which might open further possibilities.
Q: Do you have any new information on the mandatory quarantine?
MH: I personally do not have any information that I could provide you with at this moment.
Q: Some people complain to us that they should have already received text message with the invitation for the second dose of vaccine but they still have not received it.
Director of NCZI: Good afternoon. We are gradually sending the invitations for the second dose of vaccination, I suppose these people should receive their invitation any time now.
Q: When it comes to the antibody treatment that was presented today, is it an alternative to vaccination or also those people who were already vaccinated will be able to use it in case of need?
SS Jezikova: For vaccinated persons, the protection against the disease should be very high, very high also in terms of protection against hospitalization and against death. I cannot state now if such treatment is also for vaccinated persons, but as the probability of the bad course of disease for them is very low, I do not expect this. It will be primarily directed at person that were not vaccinated yet, and we will try to define these groups in as just way as possible.
Q: Are we still using the help of foreign countries for our patients who need ventilation?
SS Stachura: We currently register 9 patients that have been sent abroad for the treatment – 3 of them are in Germany, and rest was transported to Poland.
Q: Did somebody already return to Slovakia from such treatment?
SS Stachura: Currently, only deceased patients have been returned to Slovakia from Poland.
There is however good news that 2 patients should return from Germany in short period of time.
Q: EMA has yesterday issued opinion on ivermectin – it does not recommend to use it. Around 30 000 doses were supposed to be delivered to Slovakia, some patients request their doctor to prescribe it. What will follow now?
SS Jezikova: EMA has recommended using this medicine under strict surveillance of the doctors. This does not mean that the deliveries of this medicine should be completely stopped.
It should be only administered under clinical testing, as recommended by EMA.
Q: Will Ivermectin be withdrawn from pharmacies?
SS Stachura: I would like to ask you to give us some time to address this issue also taking into consideration how other countries are proceeding.
Q: Will the new treatment you presented be covered from health insurance?
SS Jezikova: These substances will be paid for by state, same as the vaccines. These medicines are indeed very expensive, so we will have to set the rules effectively, so they are given to patients that they are intended to be given to.
Q: How will opening of schools proceed?
MH: This is not really a question for us. This is one of the areas that were set separately from the Covid Automat. I do not expect the rules to change at the moment, but if they were to be changes, the competent authorities will inform you about it.
Q: Minister Grohling said some opening of schools could take place already after Easter. Do you agree with this?
MH: I would myself very much wish for this. I have 4 children and I would want them to be put back into school. It will all depend on the situation. The Covid Automat system is a robust system that was designed by experts, we have to be very careful about changing any of it. The council of experts will meet this week too, they might discuss it, but so far the message was clear – this is no time to change any rules.
Q: When could Sputnik vaccination start?
MH: All processes need to be followed as to ensure that every vaccine given in Slovakia was reviewed properly. The processes are not yet finished, when they will be finished they will have to assessed, and as early as we know something more, we will hold a separate press conference and inform you about this. For us it is important that as many people have access to as many vaccines as soon as possible.
Q: Can you explain why only 2.4 million of Johnson and Johnson vaccines were ordered?
SS Jezikova: If I remember currently we have 1.4 million doses of Johnson and Johnson ordered, it is a one dose vaccine, so it is for 1.4 million people. The deliveries should start coming in April. I feel like we ordered what we could order.
Minister Heger: I wanted to add one more detail that we also wanted to include in our slides but it did not appear there. We will provide you the materials after the press conference.
Some of you were asking if the recommendations from experts from round table discussions
were not implemented and we wanted to show you that from 28 tasks that were given, 17 were already met, 11 are in process and 0 were ignored. We are very intensively working on these recommendations. We will inform you about any new developments.
