Aid for businesses goes to parliament, along with a measure about the residency of foreigners. Read your overview of news from Slovakia on March 31.

This is your overview of news from March 31.

For all news about the coronavirus in Slovakia click here.

To read about the measures currently in place in Slovakia click here and here.

To read about the recent economic measures click here.

Coronavirus in Slovakia (updates)

- Prediction of coronavirus in Slovakia: New model counts on fewer infected cases. Take a look at the data.

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- Slovakia probably has its first coronavirus-related death. The man tested positive on Sunday, March 29 when he was hospitalised in the Bojnice hospital. He was released after the test and died after he returned home. Health Minister Marek Krajčí reported the results of his autopsy, which indicated he died of pneumonia. The Health Care Surveillance Authority will check on the case; it might have been an individual failure, the minister said. One coronavirus-positive patient has died in Slovakia before, an 84-year-old woman, but the official cause of death was stated as an extensive heart attack. (Sme)

- A third person has recovered from Covid-19 in Slovakia - a 39-year-old man who was hospitalised in Banská Bystrica, the health minister said.

- The Who Helps Slovakia (Kto pomôže Slovensku) initiative has collected more than €756,000 to help hospitals so far. The more than €450,000 that they have spent went mainly towards buying gloves and surgical masks.

- Scientists from Comenius University in Bratislava are working to uncover the full genetic information of the new virus in Slovakia.

- The Italian Embassy in Bratislava has joined all the public offices in Italy in honouring the country's more than 11,500 Covid-19 victims. They flew the Italian flag at half mast and held a minute of silence.

Italian Embassy in Slovakia honoured the coronavirus victims on March 31, 2020. (Source: SITA)

How Slovakia copes with coronavirus (measures)

- Residence permits for foreigners might be automatically prolonged due to the coronavirus crisis. The cabinet has greenlighted the proposed measure to automatically prolong all temporary, permanent and tolerated residencies that are expiring soon. Foreigners who are legally residing in Slovakia should be able to stay for one month after the crisis ends. The legal deadlines for granting and renewing residencies should be prolonged too. The measure is pending parliament approval. (TASR)

- The main hygienist will allow school canteens to open and provide take away food and food delivery. They will have to adhere to strict hygienic measures and their operation will fall under municipalities. School canteens also provide food for seniors. Health Minister Branislav Gröhling said this was positive, especially for socially excluded communities.

- Several border crossings with Hungary will open as of 6:00 on April 1, 2020. Four of them will open for freight transport, while the Slovenské Ďarmoty crossing will be open for just cars and pedestrians. (Police on Facebook)

- The We Are Ready (Smepripraveni.sk) platform has provided a unified database of volunteers from among the health care staff who are ready to support health care facilities at this time of crisis.

Economy and business news

- Slovak employers are demanding the government to quickly launch an economic crisis staff to deal with economic measures for all employers and employees. (Sme)

“ Our economy is open and cannot be cut off from abroad. Every single closure of companies in the west touches us too. „ Tomáš Malatinský, president of the employers associations

- The government gave a green light to the Finance Ministry's proposed measures. The parliament will deal with them in a short-tracked procedure. The first proposal of the measures was presented on Sunday.

- Bank clients will be able to postpone the payments of their loans and leases by six to nine months, freezing both the installment and the interest. Clients who use this option will not be listed on any blacklist, Sme Rodina Boris Kollar wrote on Facebook.

- Some businesses will only survive a month, others are better off. Take a look at the results of a recent survey among young entrepreneurs.

- Kia Motors will re-start production in its Žilina-based plant as of Monday, April 6.

- VÚB Bank management announced they were not going to pay out dividends from last year's profit, amounting to almost €91.3 million. They want to strengthen the capital of the bank for future measures, said general director Alexander Resch.

- U.S.Steel Košice and the respective branch of the OZ KOVO labour unions agreed on shortening the working time for April, under the conditions that they have been operating over the past months. (Sme)

- The PPS Group Detva plant will operate in an extraordinary regime in the coming weeks. They say mass layoffs are likely. Problems are due to the lack of orders coupled with some missing supplies of raw materials. "We are doing all we can for our revenues not to fall below 50 percent of the planned volume," said the spokesperson Ľuboš Schwarzbacher. (TASR)

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31. Mar 2020 at 20:53 | Compiled by Spectator staff