Health menace in state-run facilities: What Slovakia's mandatory quarantine is like

This is a translation of a post that I first wrote in Slovak, giving a detailed description of my experience with how mandatory state quarantine is run in Slovakia. The original Facebook status together with a blog post has been viewed over 12000 times and shared at least 1000 times since it’s been published. This is due to the severity of the situation. I don’t know whether this is going to reach as many people as it had in Slovakia but I believe it is worth raising my voice. Also, I think it deserves international attention. 

Slovakia is a democratic Central European country and has been part of the European Union for over 15 years.

According to a regulation that took effect on April 6, 2020, every individual who enters Slovakia must undergo a mandatory 14 days quarantine in one of many state-run facilities.

I’ve been in a state-run quarantine facility since last Friday, April 30. Despite my objection, I have been forced to enter and share a living unit with three other women, each of us coming from different parts of the world. We share a common space and bathroom. 

In this article, I give an explanation of how state transport and placement in state facilities are often handled and point out why I consider this a major issue in today’s democratic society. 

Disclaimer: My sole intention is to draw attention to the flawed government regulations that put Slovak citizens, returning to their homes, in hazardous living conditions as well as a degrading treatment they have to face. By no means do I want to create an impression of raising a complaint towards the accommodation equipment, location of the facility, staff, food, or such. I’ve traveled and stayed in places where I had experienced unbearable conditions in regard to hygiene or safety. I am fully aware that our government’s resources are limited. This is not a complaint but identification of apparent deficiencies of the system. 

I arrived at the Austrian-Slovak border crossing last Thursday, April 30, at 9 pm. The police officers informed me about the obligation of mandatory isolation. They asked if I had any health issues that would prevent me from entering the quarantine facility and, if so, whether I could prove myself with a negative COVID-19 test result. These two conditions can guarantee an exemption from the state-run quarantine. I knew in advance that I didn’t fulfill the requirements (such as pregnancy, cancer, severe immune deficiency, etc.), ergo I didn’t get tested.

Another officer wrote down my personal data and had me sign a document that solely said the following: “Due to the protection of the Slovak Republic against the spread of contagious disease COVID-19, all persons entering the territory of the Slovak Republic are ordered isolation in facilities designated by the state for the time necessary to perform laboratory diagnostics COVID-19, and subsequently after finding a negative result, to continue home isolation for a total period of 14 days."

Please pay attention to the word “isolation” because this became the cornerstone of the dispute which preceded my entry into the quarantine facility.

The police officers took my passport and sent me off to join the group of other returnees to wait for a bus coming to collect us. I sat down and waited. The bus arrived at 11 pm. The policemen started calling out our names one by one. They gave us our passports and handed the document we had signed earlier, in which, they added the name of the accommodation facility I was being sent to. “School dormitory Tur?ianske Teplice”, the document said.

Had I known that I will not avoid sharing a room and a living unit with other people and therefore I will not actually be in required isolation, I would have asked for a different facility already at the border. However, at that time, I was on the road for more than 48 hours, it was late and I was tired. But honestly, I was naive. I had hope that perhaps the persons in charge had learned from many of the previous cases of last weeks where they did not separate the sick and healthy and this had not only put many people at risk of getting infected from each other but actually resulted in a number of cases originating from the placement in the state facilities.

I hoped it was going to be different this time, so I didn’t inquire and got on the bus. Over 10 passengers, who were collected at a previous Austrian border cross Jarovce, were now each occupying two seats. However, with our group of people, the bus capacity was completely full. 

In Slovakia, there is an obligation to keep at least two-meter distance between people in public spaces. 

At around 2 am we finally reached the school dorms - our new, forced, temporary home. A facility manager entered the bus and explained to us that those who have their designated place of stay here will be accommodated in pairs in triple rooms. Two rooms are joined together in a living unit that shares a bathroom. At this moment, one man spoke up and said he refuses to enter the quarantine facility under such conditions. He had recalled the known cases of the spread of the virus within the units. Most of us supported him with raising our voices in approval.  

If we must undergo the quarantine then we require absolute isolation.

Ten minutes later, the manager left the bus in astonishment and soon we too got out. Outside, a group of men in protective suits and a number of police officers stood patiently, waiting for us to take our luggage and enter the building.

We stood there too, not giving up on our firm requirements to be provided with proper hygienic conditions for our stay. The facility manager began to tell us that “by entering the Slovak republic we had agreed with the state quarantine; if we didn’t want to undergo the isolation, we had a chance to prove ourselves with negative COVID-19 test results at the border and go into home isolation” (which, as I said earlier, has its many drawbacks since the exceptions only apply to people with serious health issues). 

Apparently, he wasn’t in a mood for arguing as he said: “We’ve been waiting for you here since eight o’clock already!”

I believe that all the staff involved in COVID-19 work must be exhausted and stressed out but this is no reason for me to agree to a stay that does not meet the very basic conditions for isolation.

After a few minutes of our protest, the Deputy Director of the District Department of the Police Force spoke up. In the following paragraph, I quote some of his statements and give a partial transcript of the absurd debate that followed. This will provide you with the whole picture; everything from the flawed statements to degrading treatment by the officers. In the last part, I am raising a few arguments to suggest why this does not work properly. 

I understand that the officers who communicated with us were just following their orders. I know that maybe many of them empathized with our outcry. But isn’t it ridiculously sad, that due to obvious shortcomings in the state orders, ordinary people have to argue over how exactly isolation is defined?

"There is a lot of tension in the world, it is not my fault that the Government of the Slovak Republic has approved certain measures that we must comply with. You have signed a consent to state-run quarantine. You must realize that you have your rights, but also understand that Slovakia had declared a state of emergency which equals to the state of war. I want to warn you, everyone who has been assigned to this quarantine facility will come out of the bus. You will be accommodated in the neighborhood, where people who live here, they are not enthusiastic about your arrival. The police patrol will prompt you on behalf of the law, get out of the vehicle, and get accommodated. By entering the territory of the Slovak Republic, you have agreed to the conditions. If you do not obey, there will be repression, deal with it as you wish, you will be notified and receive fines because you are not obeying the police call and you are committing an illegal act. Please enter; you will be guarded, you will get food, the accommodation is not so bad... "

Once again, we reiterated our objections and repeated that we had signed isolation.

"Let's not play with words, so what is it if what we offer to you, is not isolation?" representative said.

We were simply asking for single rooms, we fully agreed to the state quarantine. As a response we were told: 

“There are no conditions for that.“

“We are only following the orders.“

“You must have seen Facebook – this is what the situation is like, most of the state facilities are built this way.“

“Why didn’t you argue, ask, protest, demand already at the border?“

“Why do you sign just anything?!“

“You didn’t know under what conditions you will be accommodated?“

 NO! We shouted at once.

 ?You know all about your rights, but you don’t care about your obligations!“

 Once again, we repeated our objections.

"This is how the conditions are set. If you all claim you’re negative (we did not), then you have nothing to worry about. Nowhere does the law define what exactly quarantine is. Nowhere did the Chief Hygienist Mr. Mikas say that each person should stay in a single room."

"There are 11 of you now. But there are over 1300 repatriates waiting to come back. The police don’t know who wants to stay in a separate room. With so many people, our capacities are full. To put it simply, this is how isolation is understood. What you are saying does not make any sense to me, because it is only your opinion, it is only as it should be, but it is not supported by anything. The responsibilities, on the other hand, are supported by the order.”

Soon, I began to feel as if I was in the main scene of Catch 22.

I asked to see the statements of the Chief Hygienist to understand what isolation conditions are officially defined.

"Have a look at the last seventh update; it talks about the responsibilities you have as soon as you enter the territory of the Slovak Republic. I don't know though, are we going to wait here for that now? It’s a 40-pages document."

I didn't have Internet access on my phone, so I couldn't do anything at that moment. The next day, however, I took a look at the updates. The only document that contained such information is the following statement from 21.4.2020 titled: Principles for hotel-type accommodation facilities providing accommodation for quarantined persons in connection with the occurrence of COVID-19. The first point, which defines the Duties of the Responsible Person of the Facility, says:

- each applicant must be accommodated alone in a room/studio/apartment, with the exception of applicants who arrived together in one vehicle - at the same time, they can be accommodated together in one room/studio/apartment.

I understand that we could argue about the last point, and the fact that we arrived together in one bus could be attacked, but I have a few questions that are not clear to me:

1. According to the title of the document and the given point, such an obligation applies to the "Responsible Persons of the Facility". Nothing similar is mentioned in the "Duties of Applicants".
2. Why were we put into one vehicle at the border, if even taxi services are suspended due to the required social distancing?
3. No one had informed us about this information at the border, nor after arriving at the facility. I know that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but who would have really taken their time to study the ‘Principles for hotel-type accommodation facilities’ before arriving in Slovakia only to deliberately make sure that isolation is properly defined?
4. I had traveled from India by bus, two planes, a train, and a car. At all times, I protected myself with a face mask and a hand sanitizer. Although I have come a long way and shared vehicles with various people, this does not necessarily mean I am COVID-19 positive. And so, the argument that “you arrived at the facility in the same vehicle, so you are all but one infected” does not apply. What do we use the protective equipment for, if according to the order logic we ALL must be infected if one of us is positive?
5. And finally, something that basically counter-arguments everything that had been repeated to us that night, as we stood in front of the facility; two men who arrived with me on the bus were placed in a living unit together with two other men who had arrived before them in another car - they all arrived in different vehicles and at different times. There is a number of cases like this – people who arrive in separate cars are mixed together with complete strangers, arriving from a different location, at different times. They mix the sick and the healthy in so-called isolation. 

 The tension was growing, the ones in charge were losing their patience.

 "Let me say it this way because you have your truth, do as you please. I have come here today with good intentions. Unless you show some understanding and enter the facility, the police patrol will call you. If you don’t obey, I will deal with it through higher authorities. I know it doesn’t make sense to you, but we will not solve it here. Are you aware of the amount of the fine you are facing if you don’t obey?”

Finally, he announced that either we enter the facility voluntarily or they will use force to get us inside. Hearing that, I spoke up.

The officer told me: Do you, young lady, really want us to drag you in forcibly on the ground?

WHY IS THIS UNOBSERVED ISOLATION A PROBLEM? 

1. People in the state quarantine are getting tested on the fifth to the seventh day since the admission. If a positive result is found, the person is quarantined for another 14 days for re-testing. Therefore, if we are placed in a room/unit with other people, we run the risk of unnecessarily infecting each other. 
2. In case ONE person of a living unit tests positive, and all the others negative, ALL OF THE PEOPLE sharing the unit are kept in the facility for another TWO WEEKS for re-testing. Well, thank you very much for the collective responsibility I did not ask for.
3. If a person outside the state quarantine is tested positive, they can be sent to home care. In my understanding, the government has full confidence towards the Slovaks who reside here, but those of us coming from abroad, we are not to be trusted that we would comply with the domestic quarantine?

One of the arguments supporting the mandatory state-run quarantine is that the government does not have a legal technical solution to control persons undergoing a domestic quarantine. How come a person, without a travel history, who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, can be placed in a home quarantine with full confidence? Why is there so much distrust only towards the ones returning from abroad? I came across an argument that when the Corona outbreak first started, the government trusted the people but many did not comply with the domestic quarantine and this led to an increased number of infections. 

In my opinion, in a free democratic country, we simply shouldn’t pay for the irresponsible acts of a few individuals. (In any case, I would like to see official figures showing how many people, in fact, did not comply and infected others. Somehow these statistics are nowhere to be found.)

Furthermore, irresponsible people can be found everywhere, even among the Slovaks who have not traveled. Just like the virus, ignorance and recklessness do not recognize the borders. In many other European countries, the governments trust their citizens, but they also take the risk; you simply sign a pledge to undergo a home quarantine. 

It is apparent that the state has not created conditions for safe isolation and therefore it should not force us into it. On top of it, the capacities are overcrowded; the government is now sending recommendations to its citizens abroad to reconsider returning home due to the overcrowded capacity of the state-run facilities. This is despite the fact that many people have the option of home quarantine, in which they could safely isolate themselves from others.

I understand that many people in Slovakia are anxious about the Coronavirus. There is a pandemic of fear in our country. But why? 

Fear proved to be far more contagious than the virus. The media show photos of overcrowded hospitals and constantly talk about daily (although minimal) increase in the number of cases. “Slovakia is number one in dealing with the Coronavirus crisis in Europe!”, you hear our Prime Minister repeat tirelessly and with apparent pride. Regularly, he does not omit to point out at other countries that have not taken such strict measures and confirm a terrifying number of cases every day! If I listened to this repeatedly, I would probably be scared to death too.

Some people justify the taken measures by saying that the emergency situation requires emergency actions. But what if, the situation is not such an emergency as they tell us? 

Last Saturday, 1450 people were tested, and of which there was 1 positive result, while 11 people recovered. Friday recorded 4 positive cases out of 3698 tests and 50 recoveries. 7 new cases out of 5150 tests were added on Thursday, 4584 tests found 5 confirmed cases last Wednesday, etc., (source: covid-19.nczisk.sk). We are talking in units, not hundreds nor thousands. Then why is there such a need to only emphasize words, such as emergency, pandemic, and extraordinary?

I do not mean to underestimate the seriousness of the matter. But if we talk about 5 new confirmed daily cases on average, then we, returnees, cannot possibly be such a huge threat to the Slovak society and its citizens. Just a few days ago, the statistics on how many confirmed cases were found in the state quarantine facilities and how many within Slovakia, were not available. Only these days, after more and more people raised their voices of disapproval and the media started to pay more attention, our Prime Minister began to share the numbers on his Facebook account: “Yesterday we had 8 new cases. Of these, 6 were captured in compulsory state-run quarantine,” his social media profile announced. How many of these confirmed cases were due to the unnecessary mixing of people in quarantine facilities?  

On April 8, an article titled “They do not separate the sick and healthy enough. People in the state quarantine are afraid.” was published. At that time, Prime Minister said that “people organize parties in the hallways of the facilities,” and they are responsible for the mixing themselves. 

I was forced to enter and share a living unit with three other women. I had no choice. I was being threatened with fines and violence. Me, and hundreds of others, are not to be blamed for mixing. This occurs due to faulty government regulations which should be updated regularly according to the up-to-date development of the situation, because of the statements issued by the Chief Hygienist which have apparent deficiencies, as well as a lack of communication among the main authorities and the ones who execute the orders.

The article was published a month ago and nothing has changed since then. 

I was fully aware of the obligation to undergo mandatory state quarantine and I agreed to that. Previously, I had stayed at some really unpleasant places and I knew I could “survive” whatever conditions of the required isolation. I believed that my country could learn from the mistakes it had made previously and find solutions to provide adequate isolation of its citizens returning to Slovakia. 

Currently, the exemption from quarantine applies to freight drivers, students who leave, and come back within 24 hours and commuters who work within 30 kilometers of the Slovak border. These are not even required to prove themselves with negative test results. 

My original post has attracted a lot of comments, both from Slovaks abroad and those staying at home. I have received many positive messages expressing words of agreement, support, and good wishes. However, a great number of people took their time to share their hostile views against us, who for various reasons decided to come back home at these times. Many blame us for bringing the virus into the country, for being the enemies, the real danger. 

Last Friday morning, when I stood there in the late night and demanded my rights, I could do nothing. I had two options; either I enter isolation where I take a risk of getting infected, or force will be used against me. To me, this is just another slap in the face of a young person who could, one day, return to their homeland, bring valuable experience and knowledge from abroad, and contribute to the society.  

We are getting tested today and we hope that all four of us will have negative results. Otherwise, collective responsibility applies and I am really not in a mood for another two weeks here.