TRENCIN, Slovakia: Slovakia went into a two-week lockdown on Thursday, as the country with one of the EU’s lowest vaccination rates reported a critical situation in hospitals and new infections that topped global tables.
Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million, ordered all but essential shops and services closed and banned people from traveling outside their districts unless going to work, school, or a doctor. Gatherings of more than six people were banned.
The decision comes as coronavirus cases surge across Europe, making the continent the center of the pandemic again, and follows neighboring Austria which started a lockdown on Monday.
In the city of Trencin, 130 km (81 miles) north of Bratislava, musical instrument shop manager Roman Spatny said his income was tied to sales and would vanish with another lost Christmas season.
“For us this is a plain knife in the back. We have to be closed at a time that business-wise is the most important for us, same as last year,” he said. “Important decisions are taken from one hour to the next. There is no way to properly react to this.”
Student Natalia Paskova, 17, saw little choice: “The situation is getting worse so the decisions are justified,” she said.
The government initially announced new restrictions applying only to the unvaccinated on Monday, before opting for the general lockdown. It said any loosening — to be assessed after 10 days — would apply to first to those who are vaccinated.
Slovakia reported over 10,000 new cases in each of the past two days, the highest to date. With 1,929 average daily cases per million population over the past week, it has the world’s highest incidence rate according to Our World in Data.
The country has the EU’s third lowest vaccination rate of just 45.7 percent of the population, versus an EU average of 65.8 percent, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Hospitals have reached the limits of 3,200 patients which the government said was critical to maintain care. The health ministry has said it had started discussing possible help abroad. Slovakia has reported 14,107 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Slovaks lock down to slow world’s highest COVID-19 infection rate
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Slovaks lock down to slow world’s highest COVID-19 infection rate
- Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million, ordered all but essential shops and services closed
- The decision comes as coronavirus cases surge across Europe
Mother of Greek train tragedy victim says will form new party
- Opinion polls have shown that a ‘Karystianou party’ could grab between 10 and 30 percent of the vote
- The 53-year-old head of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association declined to give a timetable for the party’s launch or name
ATHENS: The main spokesperson for the victims of Greece’s worst rail tragedy has announced plans for a new political party to combat “corruption and clientelism,” with polls already predicting a strong start.
“The citizens’ movement against corruption and clientelism is being organized and will soon be ready to seek society’s vote,” Maria Karystianou, who lost her daughter in the 2023 disaster, told reporters late Friday.
Opinion polls have shown that a ‘Karystianou party’ could grab between 10 and 30 percent of the vote.
The February 2023 rail disaster in Tempi, central Greece killed 57 people, most of them young students on a passenger train that collided with a freight train in the middle of the night.
The government of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis swiftly came under fire after blaming a local station master for the accident.
The victims’ families also said valuable evidence was lost when the crash site was bulldozed soon after the accident, leading to claims of an attempted cover-up.
Nearly 40 people will go on trial in March, including railway executives and the station master responsible for directing the trains that night.
They face prison sentences of up to 20 years.
In a statement to AFP in February 2025, Karystianou said, “I am determined to take this to the end,” adding that she has “no faith” in Greek justice and would submit her case to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Friday, the 53-year-old head of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association declined to give a timetable for the party’s launch or name.
“When I have something complete — which means I will have a program and people — we will come out and speak,” Karystianou said.
Two former prime ministers — leftist Alexis Tsipras and conservative Antonis Samaras — are also rumored to be preparing parties of their own.
