Pellegrini: Slovakia ready to deal with coronavirus epidemic

Slovakia and its Armed Forces are ready to cope with an extensive coronavirus epidemic, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said after inspecting the Central Military Hospital (UVN) in Ruzomberok (Zilina region), its field hospital and meeting the UVN management on Monday. If there is an extensive epidemic, the Armed Forces will deploy a mobile hospital, he said. "As of today the Armed Forces have almost 500 health-care employees that they can immediately deploy to tackle such situations," Pellegrini said. "At the same time we have a mobile hospital that we are able to roll out on a specific area in three days -- in the first stage it has a capacity of 40 beds and can be potentially expanded by an additional 30 -- and build a mobile hospital with 70 beds."