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Slovakia Is Putting Its Faith in ‘Blanket Testing’
The small European country has become an intriguing model in the hope of avoiding a second lockdown
On March 13, merely a week after Slovakia recorded its first Covid-19 case, the prime minister and health secretary came in for an interview with the most popular channel in the country. The anchor, Zlatica Puskarova, handed the two men surgical masks and urged them to put them on. “We need to overcome our prejudices about people wearing masks,” she said. The PM and his health secretary complied. Ever since that broadcast, millions of people in Slovakia were regularly wearing masks.
While the first Covid-19 wave was hitting Europe, the small, 5.5-million-resident country was considered a success story. The government acted swiftly, announcing a strict lockdown, closing restaurants, schools, and shops 10 days after the first case was diagnosed. The Slovak people, who were allowed to move almost freely during the lockdown, complied with all restrictions and guidelines, clearly understanding the severity of the…
