Ljubljana - The newspapers Dnevnik and Večer look at the case of a four-year-old boy with burns who had to wait for a negative Covid test result for 40 minutes in front of the Celje emergency ward before he was admitted, saying that this is exactly what some were warning about when the recovered-vaccinated-tested (PCT) rule was being introduced.

While nobody questioned the fact that later the boy received proper treatment, many have wondered where was common sense, and where the fear of Covid-19 has brought us, Večer says in the commentary entitled Pain.

"All procedures are being determined by regulations. Which in this case did not even fail. The Health Ministry has clearly stated that checking the PCT requirement is not urgent in emergency cases and when children up to 15 years old are involved."

However, the checking of this requirement and other moves have caused the situation to reach the limits of what is acceptable, the paper says.

Similarly, Dnevnik argues that the reason that the boy had to wait in pain was that his father was truthful in a statement that everyone needs to fill out before admittance. He stated that the boy coughed.

Yesterday, the Celje hospital apologised, which marks the end of the story for them, but not for ordinary people, as this is by no means the only such incident. Also in Celje, a five-year-old with sepsis and high fever was sent home to wait for test results in August 2020 and was attended to only 21 hours later.

It is understandable that hospitals are afraid coronavirus will enter their institution, but this is what grey zones are for. Even in pre-Covid times, patients with a contagious disease were placed in isolation rooms, which is why it is really difficult to understand why now a child would be left in pain in front of the hospital.

This is exactly what some have been warning about when the PCT rule was being introduced, Dnevnik says under the headline Cerberuses in front of Hospitals.