SUMMARY-Tuesday, March 9, 2021 - 10 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - The News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR) released 132,858 multimedia news stories in the second half of 2020, up by 3,000 from the first half of 2020, and posted a profit of €98,242 for the whole of 2020, according to a report on TASR's performance in the latter six months of last year presented to the parliamentary culture and media committee by TASR general director Vladimir Puchala on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - Ex-premier (2018-20) and leader of the non-parliamentary Voice-SD party Peter Pellegrini has called on Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLaNO) to resign in view of the number of coronavirus-related fatalities, TASR learnt on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - The fact that the registration website for vaccination against COVID-19 slowed down and crashed on Monday (March 8) was probably not a result of a DDoS attack but a problem with the data connection of the Government cloud, which registered a 44-percent error rate, the National Centre for Health Information (NCZI) reported on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLANO) on Tuesday dismissed general director of the National Centre for Health Information (NCZI) Peter Bielik, installing Robert Suja as interim director until a selection process for the post is completed, TASR was told by Health Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova on the same day. BRATISLAVA - The British coronavirus mutation was confirmed in 90 percent of all 2,198 RT-PCR positive samples taken on March 3, TASR learnt from Public Health Office spokesperson Dasa Rackova on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - Stability of the Government is unattainable without drawing political responsibility, President Zuzana Caputova stated on a social network on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - The situation concerning coronavirus in Slovakia has slightly improved in the past seven days, with the growth curve being broken now and the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 being something above 4,000, said Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLANO) at a press conference on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - A total of 35 districts will be in black colour, 41 in dark red and three in medium red concerning COVID-19 as of next Monday, the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday. Slovakia as a whole is in black. BRATISLAVA - A lawyer identified only as Martin R., arrested back in October 2019 as part of a police operation codenamed Apache, will remain in custody, the Supreme Court decided on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - The State Institute for the Supervision of Medicines (SUKL) from Slovakia on Tuesday apologised to the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Management Board chair Christa Wirthumer-Hoche for Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic's (OLANO) statements earlier in the day, in which he urged "dear Christa" and the rest at EMA to begin working harder in reviewing vaccines for coronavirus. BRATISLAVA - A health-care professional was found by the police taking nasal swabs for coronavirus while drunk at a mobile testing site in the town of Stupava near Bratislava on Tuesday. ZAGREB/BRATISLAVA - Croatia is ready to help Slovakia and the Czech Republic in medical care for patients with COVID-19, Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced on Twitter on Tuesday, according to news website vecernji.hr. bub