SUMMARY - Sunday, October 2, 2022 - 9.30 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - Head of opposition's Smer-SD party Robert Fico calls for the joining of forces among centre-left parties. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia's coronavirus update for Saturday, October 1, according to the National Health Information Centre's (NCZI) special website covid-19.nczisk.sk: NEW POSITIVE PCR TESTS: 271 Positive PCR tests in total: 1,844,400 Daily PCR tests: 721 BRATISLAVA - Former chief of Slovak diplomacy Ivan Korcok (2020-22) chose to turn down the offer by the SaS party to serve as its election leader, TASR learnt on Sunday. LIPTOVSKY MIKULAS/BRATISLAVA - The people shouldn't be afraid to treat the upcoming municipal and regional election in October also as a referendum on the incumbent governing coalition, opposition's Voice-SD chair Peter Pellegrini declared at a press briefing on Saturday. BRATISLAVA - House Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) intends to meet with employees of the Bratislava Emergency Medical Service (ZZS BA) in the beginning of next week and discuss their planned mass resignations and job changes, TASR learnt from Kollar's spokesperson Michaela Jurcova on Sunday. BRATISLAVA - A company called Arcondis Solutions, owned by Swiss firm Arcondis Holding AG, plans to open a business services centre in Kosice and employ up to 60 people by 2026. BRATISLAVA - Presidents of Central and Eastern European NATO states voiced their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and declared that they don't and will never recognize attempts by the Russian Federation to annex any part of Ukrainian territory, reads a joint statement provided to TASR by President Zuzana Caputova's spokesperson Martin Strizinec on Sunday. BRATISLAVA - State-owned Konstrukta Defence will manufacture 16 additional 'Zuzana 2' self-propelled howitzers for Ukraine, with the production set to be co-financed jointly by Denmark, Germany and Norway, TASR learnt from Defence Ministry spokesperson Martina Koval Kakascikova on Sunday. BRATISLAVA - The mass resignations tendered by doctors back in 2011, similarly as in the present, were preceded by Government's ignorance of problems plaguing the health sector, but the state of affairs these days is even worse, TASR was told by honorary chairman of the LOZ doctor labour union Marian Kollar. mf