7,323 people tested in Orava and Bardejov as at 11:00 on Sunday

Op Shared Responsibility is seeing the pilot phase of the country-wide testing in Orava and Bardejov district in its final day. As at 11:00 on Sunday, a total of 7,323 people have been tested, of which 312 have been identified as infectious, equating to an infection rate of 4.26% of all those tested, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď announced the latest figures today.

The head of the MOD said that it is estimated that a total of 180,000 people may have been tested so far, including pensioners at care homes, regular soldiers, police, members of other armed elements, prisoners and other people diagnosed positive and self-isolating in recent days. It was estimated that up to 150,000 people would be tested at the testing sites as part of Op Shared Responsibility. Today, the Minister said the public’s interest in COVID-19 testing is lower than that on previous two days. Given the number of people tested so far, the MOD now expects that around 140,000 people will be tested, so the overall turnout is now estimated at over 90%.

Expressing his appreciation for both those supporting the testing efforts and those being tested, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “I am truly proud not only of the organisers – armed forces, police, health workers and self-governing authorities, but also of the people who have come for testing and especially of how calmly they’ve behaved and how grateful they’ve been to those testing them. It is incredible and I take my hat off to all of them. Personally speaking, I’ve been to numerous testing places today, it’s been the same everywhere – calm and quiet.”

Pilot testing for COVID-19 in the four most critical districts of Slovakia has since Friday been underway at 184 testing sites, staffed by 2,003 members of the testing teams. Antigen tests on 128,841 individuals have so far shown that 4,744 are infected with coronavirus. This equates to an infection rate of 3.68% of all those tested.