Bratislava, Oct. 27, (dpa/GNA) – Slovakia is set to test the rest of the population for coronavirus over the next two weekends after a successful pilot run over the past weekend, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Monday.
The premier first announced the unprecedented plan to test all residents over the age of 10 a week ago. All residents of four areas on the Polish border that have been especially hard hit by the virus were tested from Friday to Sunday.
The coming testing will take place only on Saturdays and Sundays, not also on the Fridays as was originally planned, due to a lack of personnel, Health Minister Marek Krajci told reporters.
On Sunday Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad, who is responsible for organizing the mass testing, had warned that testing the country’s remaining 5 million residents may not be possible after all if not enough people could be found to help out.
Matovic said the project could be copied in the rest of Europe and that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had already expressed interest.
GNA