MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, 26 December 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, 25 December): BRATISLAVA - Doctors working at Bratislava emergency rooms on this year's Christmas Eve helped almost 350 patients bedevilled by stomach aches, alcohol overindulgence, and a bone stuck in the throat, spokesperson of the Bratislava University Hospital (UNB) Eva Kliska informed TASR on Thursday. Patients were seeking medical aid over various health problems. Most of them were plagued by a stomach aches (17), one person had a bone stuck in his throat, whereas eight patients had gone too far with their drinking and nine suffered from psychical problems. However, 21 patients had to be admitted to hospitals, for example due to serious spinal or head injuries. "Five people had to undergo surgery," stated Kliska. POPRAD - Poprad-Tatry Airport and Wizz Air airline launched a regular flight connection between the Slovak town of Poprad (Presov region) and the Polish city of Gdansk on Thursday, head of Regional Tourism Organisation (OOCR) for the High Tatras Lucia Blaskova has informed TASR, adding that the Slovak mountains are a popular summer and winter holiday destination among Poles. "This step means the successful resumption of the air route between the two regions, the first one since 2012, after more than 13 years of break. The resumption was achieved thanks to the efforts and close cooperation between partners in the regions. The OOCR for the High Tatras and the Liptov Area, together with Poprad-Tatry Airport, participated in it," said Blaskova. "Almost 30 percent more Poles than last year visited the High Tatras in the first ten months of this year. This is the highest number of tourists from this country seen in the last decade, with the new air connection giving it the potential to grow even more. At the same time, the connection with Gdansk is also a small step towards opening up to tourists from northern Europe, as there are no other air connections from this direction yet," said Blaskova. BRATISLAVA - The total cost of construction of the recently open D1 motorway section between Lietavska Lucka and Dubna Skala in Zilina region, including the Visnove tunnel, has exceeded €600 million (ex-VAT) so far, according to data provided to TASR by the National Highway Company (NDS). However, this is not yet the final price. "We paid the previous contractor almost €187 million by 2019. The current contract price for the construction part is some €353 million, while it is some €62 million for the technological part," TASR has learnt from the NDS communications department. "The final price will be affected by pending legal matters, so it's impossible to set it at the moment," added NDS. BRATISLAVA - The eDoklady (eDocuments) and eIdentita (eIdentity) mobile applications, necessary for creating an electronic identity and using documents on a mobile phone, have already been downloaded by almost 400,000 people, with the Interior Ministry registering almost 1.2 million authentications, Interior Ministry's spokesman Matej Neumann has told TASR. "At the moment people can prove their identity by IDs or driver's licenses on their mobile phone during police checks, at Slovak Post Office branches, as well as in many accommodation facilities," said Neumann. He added that the programme is still at its testing stage and third parties have an integration package available allowing check of electronic documents to be incorporated into their IT systems. ko