Slovakia: Massive Testing and Quarantine Campaign Halve Infection Rate, Says Prime Minister Igor Matovic – Coronavirus



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Slovakia’s testing and quarantine campaign over the past two weekends has helped reduce the rate of new coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said at a press conference on Monday, Agerpres reported in Reuters. .

Of the 5.5 million inhabitants, Slovakia tested 3.6 million, with the exception of young children and the elderly, on the first weekend of November, and those who tested positive were forced into quarantine.

At the end of last week, the test was repeated for just over 2 million people in the worst affected areas, the infection rate being much lower due to previous quarantine measures.

The campaign in Slovakia has been closely followed by other countries fighting a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 contamination cases.

Taking into account the districts where the tests were conducted in both weeks, the infection rate dropped from 1.47% in the first weekend to 0.62% among those examined in the second weekend, Matovic said in Conference press.

If we take into account some complementary tests carried out in the police, in nursing homes and in companies, the second round showed 13,509 positive cases.

“We are entering a difficult winter. We have an extremely effective tool in antigen testing that reduces the proportion of infected people by 58%,” said the head of government.

The test was free and voluntary, but the government imposed a quarantine, which included banning the ferry on those who refused to take the test.

People should have certificates from them that show they took the test and it came back negative.

The campaign was based on antigen tests whose results are known in 15-30 minutes, but with less precision than standard PCR tests.

The government has argued that antigen tests are worth doing and that repeating them reduces the likelihood of false negative results.

To date, Slovakia has reported 76,072 cases of infection, of which 366 deaths, detected by PCR testing. Antigen testing, which included a pilot stage and two rounds of massive testing, identified 57,462 cases.

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