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Press Conference on current epidemiological situation 7/7/2021

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Unofficial Translation

Press Conference on current epidemiological situation 7/7/2021

Minister of Health Vladimir Lengvarsky

Good afternoon. I will briefly inform about two issues. Yesterday, as many of you know, there was a coalition council, and we agreed that on Monday the Ministry will present an analysis of financial and other possibilities of Ag testing for symbolic price as well as the PCR testing in some amount a month free of charge for citizens of the Slovak Republic, as requested by coalition party Sme Rodina. After a financial analysis we will take some decision on how to continue and then, after the joint approval, an Act 355 could be supported in the Parliament at the a session on 22 July 2021. As for commuters, today at 2 pm we have a meeting with the representatives of commuters at the Ministry of Health, so based on results of these negotiations we will inform you later.

Thank you.

Head of IZA, Ministry of Health, Matej Misik

Good afternoon. Currently the epidemiological situation in Slovakia continues to develop positively, both the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations have been decreasing significantly. There was a slight increase in the number of ventilated patients to 15, which however does not have to mean much at such low numbers. The reproductive number stays stabilized at the level of approximately 0.8, which translates into a steady decrease of our numbers.

If we look at the countries abroad, given the holiday season, the situation is bit diverse throughout Europe. The highest numbers of infected cases per 100 000 inhabitants are

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currently registered in Cyprus, UK, Portugal, Spain or Russian Federation. Not only the number of new cases is improtant but also the dynamics in a given country. If we look at our region, with the exception of Czech Republic, there is a continuing decrease in cases – those are the blue countries on the map. The fastest rise in cases in currently in Cyprus, Malta, Luxembourg, Spain, UK, Portugal, Finland or Greece. These are countries were it is expected that delta variant has managed to start spreading.

We already have more than 2 million people vaccinated with the first dose – the number rose by 3% compared to last week. In the total vaccination share we rose by 1.5 percentage points.

It can be seen that people primarily got vaccinated with the second doses during the past week – the share of the total vaccinated people with the second dose rose by almost 3 percentage points.

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Currently, almost 100 000 persons are waiting for vaccination in the waiting room application, including those who were already assigned the appointment. The numbers in the waiting room are pretty much stable over the observed time, but with some regional differences. The most people are waiting in Dunajska Streda, where there is also quite high share of vaccinated population.

As for age groups, we are primarily interested in the vaccination share of people 50+, as these people made up for almost 90% hospitalizations in the last wave – almost 900 000 people from this age category are still without vaccination protection. In case of some new wave this can lead into the worse situation in hospitals.

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The vaccination share of this part of population is quite diverse across the country – we see we have districts in Western Slovakia such as Bratislava or Dunajska Streda, where the vaccination share of this age group 50+ is at almost 70%, and this is the full vaccination, so both the first and the second dose. On the other hand, there is large number of districts where it is only around 40%.

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As for the total vaccination share, irrespective of age, there are also regional differences – it ranges between 20-50%.

In the past two months, the regional health offices registered around 18 000 positive cases and this provides us with interesting opportunity to look at the effectiveness of the vaccines – not only how it protects against deaths or hospitalizations, for which we have quite good data from abroad, but in Slovakia we can see that vaccination also very effectively protects against the infection itself. If we would divide these people into three groups of the same size - those who are fully vaccinated, vaccinated only with the first dose and not vaccinated at all, and we would take 50 random infected cases, 35 of them would be from the category of unvaccinated, 9 of them would be in group of partly vaccinated with only the first dose, and only 6 infected would be fully vaccinated. So we can already see from real data from Slovakia that vaccines protect not only against hospitalization and death, but also very effectively against the infection.

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As for the Covid Automat, next week only 3 districts will be in yellow colour. The rest of the districts will be all in green colour, so the Monitoring phase, in which the life is pretty much normal, without much restrictions and protective measures.

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Thank you very much.

Questions:

Q: You mentioned there will be coalition negotiations on the possibility of covering some antigen and PCR tests by state or providing them for a symbolic price. But are you also planning to expand the number of testing places and maybe install them also at the borders or airports?

ML: We are considering the option of putting more modern way of testing to borders and airports – the LAMP tests. The negotiations between our Ministry and Ministry of Transport are already ongoing about situating the first such testing place at Bratislava airport. If the situation worsens we might consider more of such places, but right now it is sufficient to monitor the borders to be able to control if unvaccinated people are registering at ehranica in order to receive appointment for PCR test, which can be then sequenced if positive, in order to identify possible delta variant.

Q: When could such pilot LAMP testing at the Airport start?

ML: In short period of time, after they agree if and where to place it - then it can start in few days.

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Q: Given the prices of antigen tests are varying a lot in former state MOMs, is it somehow regulated which tests they should use, or can it happen they will use less quality tests in order to make higher profit?

ML: Yes, it is regulated, only 4 types of test sets are allowed in Slovakia.

Q: What alternatives are currently being considered for reimbursing the antigen or PCR tests?

SaS talks about 1-2 PCR tests per month, while Za Ludi would want 4 antigen tests. How it will work in the end?

ML: Antigen tests will be available for symbolic price – we are talking about max. 10 Eur per one – they will not be provided for free. As for PCR tests, these will be free of charge in certain amount per citizen per month – it can be 1, 2 or 3 such tests. So far, I do not know for certain, it will depend how financially demanding it will be and what the coalition will agree on.

Q: The self-payment of PCR tests was supposed to work as some kind of motivation to get vaccinated. Are you satisfied with this new solution that follows from the demands of some coalition parties?

ML: As for antigen tests, there is agreement that these will not be provided free of charge – whether it will be 20 Eur or 10, I do not have any problem with this. When it comes to PCR tests, well, I think this is a good compromise.

Q: So there is agreement of also Sme Rodina on this issue?

ML: Yes.

Q: The Bratislava self-governing region started with the vaccination without need of registration last weekend. They say there was large interest in such vaccination and the registration seems to be one of the barriers why some people postpone the vaccination. What do you think about it and when will people be finally able to choose the date and time of the vaccination themselves.

ML: Such walk-in type of vaccination will be in short period of time possible in all vaccination centers.

Q: And choosing the date when registering?

ML: Well, we will see how it will go when the current waiting room will be emptied. Currently, lot of people get an appointment and do not come for their vaccination because they are on vacation, so it is hard to plan the capacities. But we will allow the free walk-in without registration in very short time.

Q: Is there any progress with making vaccination mandatory for some groups of population?

Some countries are already adopting such option.

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ML: Yes some countries are making the vaccination mandatory for some groups of population already. We had the legal analysis made and it is legally possible in Slovakia too. I am not a supporter of mandatory vaccination, because the enforcement is very problematic. I cannot imagine that we would fire some nurses for example, just because they do not want to get vaccinated or impose some high penalties.

Q: Will the tests on the levels of antibodies be accepted as alternative to vaccination?

ML: No, not in Slovakia.

Q: There is a problem with data on overcoming Covid-19 for those who were tested by antigen tests and were not able at the time to be re-tested by PCR tests. Such data about positivity has not got into NCZI system and thus they cannot access their Covid Green certificates. These are possibly thousands of people. What will you do about this?

ML: For all of these people, the time period of 6 months should be passed pretty soon, as this was a problem during the mass state testing.

Q: Yes but some are still meeting the 6 month period, so they have right for such certificate.

ML: I believe every such person will choose a logical solution and get vaccinated.

Q: But they are disadvantaged.

ML: Yes, they are, but the situation was different back then, and we are not able to get all of this data into NCZI system now.

Q: Some countries solve this with confirmation of antibodies.

ML: There are many types of tests for antibodies, they have various quality. There is cell immunity and antibodies immunity, so it is very difficult to say which one is good and which not. Every laboratory is using its own levels for identifying this. Numerous studies already show that people who overcame Covid-19 and were not vaccinated have significantly higher chance to get re-infected with delta variant than vaccinated people.

Q: We noticed there are some people on Facebook trying to sell fake PCR test result certificates. What are you planning to do about it?

ML: Yes, but I doubt these people are communicating with NCZI and can thus insert their fake certificates into the system so these people will not be able to access Covid Green certificates.

I would recommend such people to stop their activity as soon as possible. But this is question for totally different state institution, such as police.

Q: Some vaccination centers do not want to vaccinate pregnant or breastfeeding women, while other ones do not have any problem with this. Is there going to be any generally valid guidelines for the centers on how to proceed with these women?

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ML: You know, there is not really a joint opinion on this topic in the Council of Experts either.

I will try to agree with Mr. Prokopova and the representatives of gynecologists on this question in order to have some general recommendation.

Q: You said that antigen tests will be provided for some symbolic price, but where will these tests be accepted? The current decree on borders does not count with antigen tests at all.

ML: We are not really talking about traveling, but rather some swimming pools or wellness, when unvaccinated persons might use the antigen test.

Q: The border decree talks about people who cannot get vaccinated because of health reasons – such people will need PCR test not older than 72 hours. Is this requirement okay, as many such people might be also among the commuters.

ML: We will talk about this issue with Mr. Rovny from UVZ today.

Q: Given you have the meeting with the representatives of commuters today, does it mean that the decree can still change?

ML: Yes, it is possible.

Q: Many studies already prove the effectivenes and safety of combination of different vaccines. What is the current position on such possibility in Slovakia? And people who would combine the doses of different vaccines might then have problems with the certificates as these would show they received two first doses.

ML: You exactly named the problem with combination of vaccines – how to get it into certificates so as to show that such person who received two different first doses is fully vaccinated. If this problem will be solved, we will allow it.

Q: So this issue is now being solved?

ML: Yes, but it is also a matter of several days.

Q: Some hospitals are requiring tests from people before surgeries for certain fee, are you planning to address this situation?

ML: Yes, we are dealing with it. I have this information for few days and we are working on solution. So far the medical indication is included in cases where we are covering the PCR tests and it should be broadened to the hospitalization too.

Q: Today there were 45 positive PCR tests. Does this indicate some increase in cases?

Mr. Misik: The numbers from one day cannot indicate any trend so far, so we will have to observe it in coming days.

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Q: The numbers of people in waiting room have not increased significantly after new motivation for vaccination were presented, such as the lottery or the bonus. How could you explain this?

ML: We are currently trying to empty the waiting room and vaccinate all those who are waiting for their appointment. In past weekend we opened the daily vaccination capacity of 50 000 people, but it was not used because people just did not show up for their appointments. That is why we are planning to adopt the walk-in system. In coming weeks we are also planning to provide some data for you as for how many people were vaccinated in vaccination centers, by mobile vaccination units, by general doctors, so we will see where we should focus. We will also try to use the mobile vaccination teams in the least vaccinated regions, as showed by data from Mr. Misik.

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