Unofficial Translation
Press Conference on the current epidemiological situation
Health Minister Krajci
Good evening. The epidemiological situation I will inform you about was also the topic of today´s meeting here at the Government with the scientists, infectologists and epidemiologists, which was called by the Prime Minister. The meeting has lasted more than 4 hours and it will continue tomorrow from 13:00. I hope that tomorrow we will also be able to inform you about the recommendations of these experts, which should be communicated by the Prime Minister.
When it comes to the epidemiological situation, when comparing with our neighboring countries, we see that gradually the situation is worsening. Slovak Republic has the reproductive number slightly above 1, therefore the trend is relatively stabilized but also slightly increasing, thus negative. Same can be said about our neighbors, but their numbers are much more positive.
Those numbers can be seen at this next table.
When it comes to mobility, it is increasing slightly, namely in terms of automobile transport and walking. The relatively low mobility is kept at the mass transport, which is of course very risky. We do not recommend to use it unless necessary and if possible, to wear respirators while travelling in public transport.
The data we compare every week are the following. The 14-day incidence is slightly increasing, from 506 to 531 for PCR tests, and from 1288 to 1267 for both PCR and antigen tests. The number of hospitalizations is rising little by little, Mr. Jarcuska will inform later about the situation in our hospitals. In these days we also have very little ventilated beds left, given the numbers of patients requiring this treatment is also increasing. A 7-day average is keeping for several weeks around the level of 5000, currently it is 5089, which is a slight worsening. A 7- day average of performed tests, both PCR and antigen, is 226903 and the positivity of the tests has unfortunately slightly increased, when it comes to PCR tests, and for antigen tests it is still at the level of 1%. The daily deaths have decreased a little bit from 108 to 98 compared to last week. The number of used vaccines is 382432. When it comes to reproductive number, it is slightly above the level of 1, thus the situation is gradually worsening. Let me thank to those people who follow and respect all the rules, because only thanks to them the situation is being kept at the current levels. If we relaxed any measures in any area of our lives at this moment, the situation would rapidly worsen. This is what we discussed today with the scientists too.
The development of the numbers of confirmed cases can be seen at this graph, the trend is slightly worsening. The 7-day average of PCR and antigen tests is 5089, and for PCR tests only it is 2156.
Here let me remind to our citizens how they should behave when they are tested positive.
When receiving positive antigen test, it is important to follow the 14-day quarantine – of course this quarantine applies for the whole household. The reason is simple – if you received positive antigen test, it means you are a highly infective case with high virulence of the disease and the members of your household are most like already infected too. Of course, if others in household do not show any symptoms, try to isolate yourself from others in some separate room if possible. Ask the members of your household to fill in the application at korona.gov.sk to get tested earliest at the 8th day by PCR test. Of course, if they show any clinical symptoms, they should go for test as soon as possible.
Same applies for anybody who is sick or has health problems with symptoms suggesting he/she could be infected with this virus, should go as soon as possible for the antigen test and in the case the antigen test is negative, and you continue to have the disease, it is also good to book appointment for PCR test at korona.gov.sk. Today we discussed this with the experts a lot – the negative antigen test does not automatically mean we are really negative, it can also mean you are just not highly infectious at the moment of test. However, if your antigen test is positive, it is almost certain you are really positive.
If you had a close contact with somebody, who was positively tested, and this person contacts you to inform you about this, or you are contacted directly by the public health authority, you will need to go into 14-day quarantine and get tested earliest on 8th day by PCR test. Of course, during this time they are entitled for pandemic work inability benefit. I would like to say that the success of our fight with the pandemic depends hugely on how people comply with these rules. The whole testing is useless if people, who test positive, together with their whole household, go into quarantine or if they do not notify their close contacts with whom they met in last 5 days. If people complied with these rules, the massive testing would have its
results. Those who do not comply with these rules of course face the danger of receiving a very high fine and they endanger their surrounding – it is dangerous and irresponsible.
When it comes to the regime at borders, there I just want to remind that if somebody is traveling from abroad to Slovakia, they need to fill in the form ehranica and go into quarantine.
By filling the form, the authorities from health offices already know about this person, and on 8th day this person has the test. If such person returned from EU countries, such negative test ends the quarantine. If such person visited other than EU countries, the quarantine lasts full 14 days. It is very important to comply with these rules, as there are a lot of variants already present worldwide and it is crucial for our epidemiological situation that people will not bring any new mutation from abroad.
Indication Timing of the test
Length of the quarantine Price of the test
Asymptomatic positive Ag test
14 days for asymptomatic patient since the positive result.
Quarantine for whole household.
Free of charge
Symptoms The earliest possible Ag/PCR testing
After the end of symptoms based on the evaluation of the general practitioner. Quarantine for whole household.
Free of charge
Close contact Earliest on 8th day after contact
14 days regardless of the test result
Free of charge
Return from abroad
(eHranica)
Earliest on 8th day after the arrival
14 day for the whole household, respectively until the negative result of the indicated PCR test.
Free of charge
When it comes to the situation in hospitals, I will only discuss this one picture, showing the representation of individual age groups of those currently in hospitals. We can see the positive effect of vaccination – we know we are already vaccinating the category 75+ and we have dozens of thousands of seniors vaccinated already. This positive effect is also caused by the fact that already 37% of seniors of social service facilities are vaccinated. That is why the share of patients in age group 81-90 is decreasing, to the level of 12% now, and also the hospitalization of age group 71-80 has slightly decreased from about 28% to 24% at the moment. At the same time, however, we also have to note that the hospitalizations in the age group of 61-70 and 51-60 are increasing, and this can be explained also be the high presence of the new variant, which is more infectious and shows worse course also in younger groups of population.
Professor Jarčuška will comment more on the situation in hospitals.
Professor Jarčuška
Good evening. I will show how the numbers of visits of emergency services to patients with suspicion or confirmed Covid is changing. You can see this number is gradually increasing, the growth from the beginning of this year is more or less linear.
When looking at this trend from the perspective of regions, you can see that some regions register higher increase in the visits of emergency services. These services are most used in Košice region, which was just 3 weeks the most affected together with Bratislava region.
However, if you look at Košice region, you see that the number of emergency services visits is 503, while in Bratislava region, thanks to observance of measures, the number decreased to 360. The Prešov regions and Banska Bystrica are also seeing rise in these numbers. On the other hand, Nitra region is seeing a decrease.
This is the picture showing the capacities of the hospital beds. These numbers are not unchangeable of course, the University Hospital in Bratislava has recently bought some additional ventilations, thus increasing its capacity numbers. The non-oxygen beds are occupied at 53% only – those are beds used for patients who need different care and the Covid is rather secondary disease. When it comes to oxygen beds, those are occupied at 76%, and as you can see the more requiring beds JIS2 beds (JIS – intensive care units), using high flow ventilation, are occupied at 82%, JIS3 beds at 93% and OAIM (Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care) beds with artificial lung ventilation, at 85%. The numbers are thus relatively high and they are gradually increasing. When it comes to other beds, in white (non-Covid departments) the situation is relatively good.
This is a positive graph – although in last 3-4 weeks, the numbers of medical personnel in quarantine are not changing dramatically, we expect to see further effect once the numbers of those vaccinated with second dose will increase.
When it comes to deaths, the number is relatively stabilized in last few weeks, and the trend is slightly decreasing. On the other hand, we have to say that in last week 608 Covid-caused deaths and 77 with-Covid deaths were added. In the University Hospital where I work, the number of Covid patients is oscillating somewhere around 300. When we have the beds full, we try to send the patients to the nearby hospitals, and on the other hand, when we have some beds free we take the patients from nearby hospitals. What is alarming however, is that in our hospital, on average, every 3 hours a patient with Covid-19dies. This is sad and we have not experienced this with other diseases.
Minister Krajci
Let me also add some information on vaccination process in Slovak Republic. The development is more or less linear, but it is limited with the numbers of delivered vaccines. We could vaccinate much more people, we already have 77 centers opened. We face the lack of vaccines however. We should receive only 22 000 more Moderna vaccines, which we need to use for re-vaccination with second dose. When it comes to AstraZeneca, we are promises 20 000 doses, and next month approximately 12 000 and then approximately 59 000 vaccines. When it comes to Pfizer, there the deliveries are most even, approximately 51 800 doses arrive every week. The highest share of vaccinated is in Bratislava region with 9.29%, and in terms of whole Slovakia around 7% of population is vaccinated. We are in better half within EU countries in terms of vaccination, however there is practically no competition as all countries face the same difficulties with deliveries. In total, 382 432 doses were applicated to people and 101 929 second doses were already applicated.
The vaccination strategy has currently 11 phases. I will skip this topic and get to next one.
When it comes to building high-capacity vaccination centers, I announced before I want them to be in every regional city. From these dates, these high-capacity vaccination centers will already work, however due to lack of vaccines they will so far only work on the weekends. This weekend we will still continue with the vaccination of teachers and then we could open next phase. Here we expect some changes to take place, we are also considering to prioritize the
people working in our shops given the contact with people is high there. Today, we also discussed the decree allowing positive people to go to shop, and the Chief Hygienist already received instructions from the Ministry of Justice to change it. We granted this possibility of positive persons, who cannot procure their food in other way, to be able to shop with respirators, only because we did not want to violate their constitutional rights.
And these are the results of the Covid Automat. We are still in IV. level of warning, the indicators have not improved, rather opposite – they have slightly worsened. The 7-day average of new cases is above 5000, the number of hospitalization is at new record – over 4000. There are few beds with ventilation, thus the most intensive care, left, and that is why we have asked the EU for help. As you already know, the medical stuff from Romania will come to help, and it is estimated they should start to work already on Friday in the National Center for Heart Diseases, where new department with around 14 beds will be created. I want to thank very much to Romania, and also to Austria and Poland, who are willing to help namely in the hospitals in the border areas, from where they could take our patients.
This is graph of trend of the 7-day average, which is not positive and distancing from the required level of 4000.
When it comes to development in hospitalizations, we have seen a slight decrease after November testing and lockdown, and since then, the numbers are constantly increasing.
Reproductive number seems to be kept somewhere near 1, but the prognosis is currently not very positive unfortunately.
Therefore, taking into considerations all these indicators, Slovakia stays in the black zone as whole next week too. When it comes to the regional division, this is the map for next week.
We need to praise Bratislava, which had negative trend last week but managed to stay in dark red zone, also thanks to regular testing of its population. The effect is also seen in Bratislava hospital, which is one of the few hospitals where the situation improved slightly. Situation in
hospital also improved a lot in Nitra hospital thanks to mayor of Nitra which conducted repeated testing. Unfortunately, we also have to state that we already have 20 black districts, 53 are dark red, and the number of red districts decreased to 6.
Here is the trend in regions. Bratislava has already stabilized trend. Unfortunately, the situation in whole territory is slightly worsening.
Here are the lists of the districts in black and dark red zones.
And here is the list of the currently best doing district in red zone.
I will now, as every week, explain what this regional division means. Schools and kindergartens stay closed in black districts and in dark red districts they are opened based on the recommendation on regional health office. Schools are opened in red districts. In black and dark red districts, a 7-day negative test is needed to come to work and in red districts a 14- day old test. When it comes to travelling to nature in other district with test, this is prohibited
in black district in terms of both entry and departure, and in dark red and red districts this is possible with 7-day old test.
Thank you very much and there will be only few questions due to late hour.
Questions:
Q: When we see the trend in hospitals, how long will it take until we will have to reprofile more beds from white departments of hospitals?
MK: We see the trend is negative. We have an analysis prepared on which hospitals can proceed to further reprofilization of beds and we also have a plan based on which we can reprofile some hospitals fully to red hospitals.
Q: The President asked you to ensure better sequencing of samples as well as better renumeration of medical personnel. How will you react on this?
MK: When it comes to sequencing, this is not a new call. The European Commission also recommended us to sequence 5-7% of our samples and that is why we asked Mr. Klempa from SAS to prepare project of ensuring new sequencing places, which there are currently 10, and which will be able to start working in a week or two. When it comes to renumeration, the Ministry is preparing law which will change the coefficients for renumeration of selected medical personnel. We renumerate mostly those who work in red departments, who already receive contributions.
Q: We are still waiting for the decision on Sputnik vaccine.
MK: There are several reasons why we are still waiting. If we decide to grant the exception for the use of unregistered vaccine as the Ministry, we need to work on very detailed contract with Russian side. Also, I still think that if we are to negotiate an international contract, we should have the prior approval of the Government. Plus, I also wanted to discuss this with experts and ask for their opinion, given SUKL will not be able to register this vaccine for Slovakia. We pretty much agreed that if we purchased Sputnik vaccine for use in Slovakia, it would be only given to people who would show interest in such vaccination and it would be only during the third phase of the clinical testing of this vaccine, which should then be fully in accordance with all EU regulations too.
Q: So it would be based on some written consent signed by people who want to get vaccinated by it? Is the process now only awaiting business negotiations on forming a good contract with the Russian side? Do you agree with the use of this vaccine?
MK: Yes, we need to negotiate good conditions in the contract. If we will have this vaccine here as unregistered medicine, it will be only given to people who decide they want to take it, also as part of third phase of clinical testing of this vaccine and they will sign the written consent.
Q: When should such decision be taken and when could these medicines arrive?
MK: It will be when it will be, I will inform you about it at that time.
Q: I heard Czech Republic will receive some vaccine from Israel, did you also apply for such help? And when you mentioned you will change the vaccination order strategy to prioritize people working in shops, will this mean the other groups will have to wait longer for their vaccination?
MK: We applied several times for the vaccines of Israel, so we will see if we will also receive some. We also applied for additional vaccines at the European Commission, and it seems we could receive 100 000 doses from other countries, who would give us their contracted vaccines, which we would return in April. The EC has considered our situation as bad and thus, in terms of solidarity, decided we might receive some doses earlier.
When it comes to prioritization, this will apply only to people up to 55 of age and they will be vaccinated by AstraZeneca. I must confirm that this vaccine seems to have worse side effects compared to RNA vaccines. From this reason, we would not want the chronically ill or older people to be vaccinated with this vaccine, as it could threaten their health condition. So we want to give it people who are well in terms of health, but at the same time present risk group in terms of their contact with people.
Q: In Czech Republic there is suspicion of new variant, so will you consider more sequencing also of people coming from this country?
MK: This is primarily up to Chief Hygienist, but the recommendation is clear – to sequence the samples of those coming from abroad.
Q: Mr. Krcmery said that the ideal solution would be closing borders. Do you consider the stricter border regime?
MK: We discussed this at the meeting today, it was an exceptionally good discussion, but there is no definite conclusion yet, so I will not comment on this. I explained today that the regime is quite strictly set already.
Q: When it comes to district Partizanske, it should be in black zone according to map, while the regional hygienists comment that there is improvement in the district. Can you explain this?
MK: The regional health offices are contacted on Monday and they can intervene by around 20% to the decision on the color of the district. The data for this particular district were negative in terms of hospitalizations and positive PCR tests, also the regional hygienist did not evaluate the situation well.
Q: The employers are saying they are willing to contribute financially to the purchase of the vaccines for their employees. What do you think about this proposal?
Prof. Jarčuška: I received some calls from few employers who said they are willing to buy the Sputnik vaccine even if it will not be registered, if the Minister of course grants the exception, and if their employees would agree with getting vaccinated with this vaccine. When it comes
to other, registered vaccines, which can be bought only through European procurement system, we will have to stick with the vaccination order. The state has to buy the vaccines, they cannot be bought in this case by a private company. We will however try to meet the requirements of the employers and ensure the vaccines as soon as possible.
Q: In case of symptomatic course of disease, if somebody ceases to have symptoms earlier than on 14th days, can such person terminate the quarantine even earlier than after those 14 days?
MK: No, in this case it is 14 or more, based on decision of the doctor, but not less than 14 days.
Q: What do you say about the calls from coalition for resignation from the position of the Minister of Health?
MK: I am saddened by the reaction of Mr. Sulík and some of the Members for the Za Ludi party and their call for me to resign. But I have the strong support of the Prime Minister and the parliamentary group. If there is an interest in me to continue in my role, I will be happy to continue in the position of Minister.
