The Slovak state will spend approximately 20,000 euros to dispose of expired COVID-19 tests from the pandemic era currently stored in the Ministry of the Interior's central warehouse in Žarnovica. Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas-SD) informed journalists on Wednesday that the warehouse contains tests worth approximately 10 million euros.
"For these ten million euros, I believe that Slovak citizens could have had much more important things secured than these boxes behind me, which will be disposed of shortly, as the law requires," said the minister. He reminded that mass testing during the government of Igor Matovič cost over one billion euros, with 350 million euros spent on the tests themselves.
According to Šutaj Eštok, the warehouse holds four million unused test swabs and two million expired antigen tests that were never used. "Such irresponsible behavior not only endangered lives and health but also public finances, and I firmly believe that the Covid team will have one more issue to address: how it is possible for someone to run the state in such a way that it results in an economic loss of ten million euros," he added.
Ervín Erdélyi, director general of the Crisis Management Section of the Ministry of the Interior, noted that the tests were collected this year from all district offices. Their expiration date passed last year or even earlier. They will be disposed of by a contracted private company, which will burn them.
Source: TASR
