Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic Marek Krajčí discussed today in an online discussion with British Minister of Health Matt Hancock. The heads of health departments exchanged experiences at the initiative of the British side. They discussed the benefits and results of area testing using new antigen tests, to which Slovakia joined as the first country in the World in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Slovak Minister of Health highlighted the work of health professionals, volunteers, army or others involved and their huge commitment during the field testing, in which he volunteered as a health professional and assisted in testing. We have protected the lives and health of many, we have shown our cohesion, because the people themselves have understood the need for mutual cooperation. We had to act quickly. There wasn't time to get ready any longer. If we were to implement it a week later, the curfew would have to be two weeks longer to achieve the same epidemiological effect, said Minister of Health Marek Krajčí. Great Britain has the first experience of field testing in Liverpool. The British head of the resort perceives testing throughout the country as being done in Slovakia as a well-managed challenge that broke the growing curve of the virus. –We are very interested in the organisation and results of the field testing, we admire how Slovakia managed to organize such a large event within a few days, as well as the results that such flat testing brought. Other follow-up measures are also important. I believe that the situation with COVID-19 in Europe together we all manage responsibly and protect people's health, said British Health Minister Matt Hancock. The Health Minister Marek Krajčí also presented the results of the analytical data processing provided by IZA, which show how powerful a population-wide testing tool to reduce the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 is. He also highlighted those aspects of our intervention model that are critical to its success, such as compulsory isolation of all members of the common household or self-tracing contacts. He firmly believes that we have sold our British side sufficient know-how to enable them to successfully replicate our intervention and achieve a similar excellent result.