BREAKING: Restaurants, Hotels, and Fitness Centers to Close From Friday, December 18

The government has tightened measures against the spread of coronavirus. The Czech Republic will return to the fourth risk tier of the anti-epidemic system PES from Friday.

It’s official: the Czech Republic will move to the fourth 4 PES level from Friday, December 18.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) announced the new restrictions after Monday’s government meeting. Below a recap of the restriction measures:

• Shops and services (ex. hairdressers) will remain open, restaurants, hotels, fitness centers, museums, and galleries will be closed. Food businesses will be able to open dispensing windows
• The night curfew will be renewed from 11 pm to 5 am
• Public gatherings will be limited to six people both indoors and out, instead of the current 10 and 50, respectively.
• Indoor sports grounds for amateurs will be closed from Friday, as well. It will not be possible to train groups of more than six people outdoors
• Ski resorts can open, but without attendant accommodation or restaurant services.
• The government lifted the regulation banning the take-away sales of beverages.

“It was a very difficult decision, we are aware of the impact it has on people’s lives,” Babiš said.

The government approved a financial plan to support food facilities worthing CZK 2.5 billion. The “COVID gastro program” will run from October 14 to December 31.

“The number of new cases is also rising among seniors and the reproduction number is actually at 1.2. With this trend, we would actually risk up to ten thousand people daily infection by the end of the month,” he added.

Minister of Health Jan Blatný (ANO) stated that “this year’s Christmas will be totally different, but that is the result of the situation we are in”.

All citizens are to be offered rapid antigen tests for free from December 16 to help curtail the number of undetected infections.

The Czech Republic reported 1,999 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, continuing a trend of showing a weekly rise in infections.

In total, 581,079 cases have been detected since the pandemic started. There are 65,548 active cases currently. The number of hospitalized patients edged up to 4,203. Deaths have climbed to 9,609.