ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven not to be just a public health crisis, but also a challenge for the quality of democracy. Uncertainty of the crisis development presses democratic governments to apply measures that contradict fundamental democratic principles and adapt a law-and-order approach in policing the pandemic. Slovakia adapted such an approach and in the first wave of infections, it was one of the prominent countries in its ability to keep the virus in check. During the second wave it continued within the law-and-order paradigm. However, in spite of its application of unique instrument of population-wide testing, it became one of the countries with highest coronavirus-related deaths. This chapter presents an overview of extraordinary surveillance measures adopted by the Slovak government in the fight against the pandemic between March 2020 and May 2021. It argues that these instruments have their inherent social costs and negatively affect the quality of democratic governance.
