When looking at the development of excess mortality in the Slovak Republic (third-highest in the EU27 over the analysed time period, see Table 1), the second (September 2020 to May 2021) and later also third waves (September 2021 to May 2022) saw Slovakia record a high number of infections and deaths. The exception was indeed the first wave of the pandemic (March to May 2020), during which the hard lockdown introduced very quickly brought the expected results and numbers remained low.
While the strong second wave was primarily the result of neglected preparation (planning, contact tracing, testing), chaotic political decisions often without a scientific basis (population-wide rapid antigen testing), inappropriate communication to the public and the late introduction of a hard lockdown, the main problem in the third wave was the politicization of COVID-19 vaccinations (inconsistent support across the political spectrum, scandal with the Sputnik V vaccine, and the unsuccessful vaccination lottery) leading to only 51% of the population being vaccinated and another late-introduced lockdown.
Although all EU countries recorded an increased excess mortality during the pandemic, a more detailed comparison shows that the situation in Slovakia was particularly unfavourable (reaching 70% at the peak of the wave, a total of 26,786 excess deaths were recorded). Hypothetically, it is even possible to quantify the number of lives that could potentially be saved if the same anti-pandemic measures as in selected EU countries had been introduced in Slovakia. Based on country benchmarking for instance, if Slovakia had followed the same pandemic measures as Estonia or Denmark, up to 12,391 or 21,308 fewer deaths, respectively, could have occurred. This could have also been the case with higher vaccination rates, that is, Slovakia would have recorded 14,483 fewer deaths with the same vaccination rates as Portugal.
As a result of this, then Minister of Health Krajčí resigned on 11 March 2021, followed by then Prime Minister Matovič on 30 March 2021. One reason specifically given from the official government website for the coalition’s collapse was the purchase of the Sputnik V vaccine. Nearly two years later, on 6 March 2023, Slovakia’s Attorney General confirmed the launch of a criminal prosecution (begun in January 2023) for (mis)management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
