How normally we will be able to live in the coming months depends on respecting the protective measures against the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Janez Janša emphasized at a round table in Ljubljana today. Strict measures can be avoided by responsible behavior, he urged.
During the first wave of the epidemic, Slovenia avoided the worst also with responsible behavior, the Prime Minister reminded. In the beginning, when we were naked and barefoot about protective equipment, we called countries that had plans for an epidemic, such as Austria and Poland, he said. Slovenians are above the European average in terms of responsibility, while the capacities in health care are not like that, he warned at a round table entitled Responsible citizen – successful nation, which was organized as part of the Social Week at the Zavod sv. Stanislava (Institute of St. Stanislav) prepared by the civil initiative Prebudimo Slovenijo (Let’s Awaken Slovenia).
Hospital beds with patients with covid-19 are filling up in the second wave, and the ratio of infected to sick is deteriorating due to more and more sick. Between 150 and 200 infections have been confirmed daily for some time, and the number is not decreasing. »So the mild measures taken towards the end of September did not work because they are not being taken seriously enough,« he stressed. Among the three levels of measures applicable to countries in orange, we have now exhausted the measures from the second package. There is only one left, and then there is the red color when the epidemic is declared, he warned.
VIDEO: Responsible citizen – successful nation
Infectious disease specialist Mateja Logar praised the government’s measures in the first wave. The share of those who were admitted to intensive care units, she said, was low enough that they could take care of everyone. None of the patients in need of treatment were disadvantaged, she recalled. The bigger problem, however, was in providing other health services. If there are many patients with covid in the second wave, they will not be able to take care of patients with other diseases, she stressed.
Psychologist Andrej Perko, on the other hand, focused on analyzing the response to the epidemic. People who are scared and react in a panic have a primary fear of death that we have driven out of consciousness, he said. According to him, we no longer find ourselves in crisis situations because we have pushed the tradition out of our lives, which tells us how to act in crisis situations
According to Martin Jezeršek, a member of the board of directors of the Club of Slovenian Entrepreneurs, the government responded excellently during the declared epidemic and gave a clear signal to the economy not to start laying off employees too quickly. In the period between the first and the second wave, when aid continued, however, part of the economy also remained overlooked. He had in mind, for example, specialized agencies that bring overseas guests to Slovenia.
Janša explained that it was already clear at the beginning of the epidemic that it made no sense to give artificial oxygen to activities that would not survive. Some agencies may switch to something else, but fortunately there are no Slovenians among the organizers of tourism with overseas ships, he said. In the fifth anti-corona package, the government is addressing the affected activities and if the virus is controlled in the first half of next year, there will be no such consequences as during the economic crisis, he estimated.
The recent EU summit in Brussels also paid attention to the assessment of the situation regarding the spread of coronavirus in Europe, which is worrying, he said. If we are not responsible in the coming months, we will find ourselves in the same situation as in the spring, when public life came to a halt, and this will also lead to a halt in the economy, he pointed out. »If we fail to do this, the economic and consequently social consequences will be severe,« he said.
According to him, the responsibility of those who influence public opinion has never been so great as it is now. Now, he said, we are faced with the question of whether a loud irresponsible minority will be louder than the profession.