The Czech Republic may consider using vaccines not yet registered in the EU to speed up inoculations, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Friday, on a trip to Hungary which has given emergency approval to Russian and Chinese vaccines. He said he had also spoken about the issue with German officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, who he said wanted Russian or Chinese vaccines to be given European approval. European Union countries’ governments are facing a reckoning over vaccination programs that have lagged far behind the United States and former EU member Britain. Hungary so far is the only EU member to have given emergency use approval to Chinese and Russian vaccines. Other EU countries have followed the European regulator EMA, which has so far approved only three vaccines from Western companies. “I have spoken about the Russian vaccine, and about the Chinese vaccine, with Chancellor Merkel, and the chancellor, as well as the Bavarian prime minister, are unambiguously calling for this vaccine to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA),” Babis said after meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Now of course the issue is whether the producer asks for the approval or not, and we of course want...
Restrictive measures against the spread of COIVD-19 have stopped working as the more aggressive U.K. variant is spreading and people do not adhere to rules, Health Minster Jan Blatný said. The Czech health ministry recorded 8,032 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, up from 7,999 the week before. In total, 1.02 million infections have been recorded since March. “The British mutation in the Czech Republic is spreading between 35 and 70 percent faster than the current virus,” Blatný said during a visit to the hospital in Cheb. In the afternoon, the minister called on citizens to comply with the measures. “I know that many people are not only at the end of their strengths, but also at the end of their financial means. Many of us lost our loved ones. The level of hostility in society is growing dramatically,” the minister continued, adding that the situation would not improve without the willingness of people to help. “People should not travel around the country, meet, and if so, they should wear the FFP2 masks”. “Many hospitals are on the verge of emergency care capacity. If we do not start to comply with the existing measures, hospitals will not be able to accept,...
The Czech Republic will buy the COVID-19 antibody from Eli Lilly in the U.S., Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced on Twitter. Bamlanivimab is supposed to reduce the amount of virus in the body, thus preventing more severe symptoms. Babiš said that Czechia has ordered its first delivery of the drug. However, he did not specify when it will arrive in the Czech Republic or in what quantity. “It will help patients in the first stage of the COVID-19 infection not end up in ICU. It reduces the risk of this by up to 80 percent,” the prime minister announced. Bamlanivimab works on the basis of monoclonal antibodies, which are produced in the laboratory and are intended to neutralize the virus by attacking it on a well-defined target. In the U.S., the drug has been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Germany was the first in the EU to use Bamlanivimab. According to the local Ministry of Health, studies show that the administration of these drugs could help reduce the amount of virus in the body, which would have a positive effect on the course of the disease. In addition to Germany and the U.S., the...
The Czech Republic has surpassed a milestone of 1 million confirmed coronavirus infections since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry said Wednesday that the day-to-day increase in new infections was 9,057 cases for a total of more than 1 million. Despite the number of new infections falling since they reached a record high of almost 18,000 in early January, they have stagnated in recent days at still dangerously high levels despite a strict lockdown. In Europe, only Portugal and Spain had higher per-capita infections in the past 14 days, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The Czech death rate is also among the highest in Europe. Deaths from COVID-19 in the Czech Republic reached 16,683 as of Tuesday, doubling since the end of November. The death toll has grown 39-fold since the start of September. Hospitals have been strained by the surge in cases that began after the summer holidays, with a shortage of healthcare workers and the number of patients needing care hovering around 6,000 since falling from peaks of over 7,000 in mid-January. The government aims to cut the number of hospitalized patients to around 3,000 before loosening lockdown restrictions. Currently, 93,043 people are...
In an attempt to prevent the spread of new mutations of the coronavirus, the Czech Republic and Austria will impose stricter measures at the borders and travel to both countries. On February 5, 2021, the Czech Republic will add a fourth category of high-risk countries to the list of green, orange, and red countries. Slovakia will belong to the fourth category, State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ministry Martin Klus wrote on Facebook. Austria decided to ease the local measures and lockdown from February 8, 2021, but the country is also changing the rules at the borders and the conditions for entering the country. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer confirmed that cross-border commuters will be obliged to register upon arrival like other travellers and they will have to show a negative PCR test result once a week, Czech newswire ČTK informed. While the date these new rules become effective has not been specified, the Foreign Affairs Ministry assumes they will take effect on February 8. The loosening will apply to all schools and non-essential shops including hairdressers, but not bars, cafes or restaurants. It will include switching to a nighttime curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. rather than the all-day...
Even a mild case of COVID-19 can come with some pretty miserable symptoms, including debilitating headaches, extreme fatigue and body aches that make it feel impossible to get comfortable. Numerous Czech workers and citizens have testified about having post-Covid-19 symptoms that have been moderately or severely handicapping their ability to work. This is due to the fact that patients are not completely healthy and recovered even after months of the initial contraction of the virus. Post-Covid-19 symptoms include chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, and persistent loss of smell and taste. Petr Jakubec, a pneumologist from the University Hospital Olomouc, has stated that post-Covid-19 symptoms can last for weeks or sometimes even months. “In other diseases, we are used to patients feeling improvement every day, but unfortunately for Covid-19, recovery is only after weeks, sometimes even months”. Early in 2021, a study in the Lancet showed that 6 months after illness onset, 76% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, reported at least one symptom that persisted, mostly fatigue or muscle weakness. Evidently, it is essential and recommended to visit a pulmonary doctor, if problems persist. Olomouc Hospital advises patients to rehabilitate slowly, emphasizing the importance of regular, but not brash, movement....
A Czech woman made headlines last week for her role in preventing an armed gunman from robbing a petrol station near Bratislava. She was able to subdue the gunman by performing oral sex on him until the police arrived on the scene. The 36-year-old Czech woman was at the petrol station buying cigarettes when an armed man began pointing a gun at the station clerk and punching him in the face before taking money from the cash register. The clerk was described as having blood covering his face and shirt after the attack. From there the gunman grabbed the Czech woman by the hand and dragged her to the back office believing her to be an employee. The gunman was believed to be speaking Serbian and demanded that she open the safe for him. “He said he would kill me, he wanted money. He repeated it several times,” the woman told Topky.sk. It was at this point that the Czech woman began to flirt with the gunman in an attempt to distract him while the staff called for help. “At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything other than taking off my jacket, sweater and showing him my strengths,” said...
According to the Czech Statistical Office, an average Czech consumes 292 beers, 100 glasses of wine, and 175 shots of hard alcohol annually. Approximately 7,000 people die due to heavy alcohol consumption each year in the Czech Republic. In 2019, there were 4,486 car accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol, in which 50 people were killed. One in every seven people in the Czech Republic – over 1,000,000 people – consumes a dangerous amount of alcohol. For experts, two drinks per day for men and one daily drink for women is considered risky drinking, which concerns around 1.5 million Czechs, according to their estimates and the consequences exceed 59 billion CZK a year. The amount includes both the financing of treatment for addiction, as well as crimes, traffic accidents and reduced labor productivity. Based on the WHO report, alcohol consumption is the world’s third-largest risk factor for disease and disability; in middle-income countries, it is the greatest risk. Alcohol is a causal factor in 60 types of diseases and injuries and a component cause in 200 others. Almost 4 percent of all deaths worldwide are attributed to alcohol, greater than deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, violence, or tuberculosis. Dry...
The Czech branch of the American company Novavax is only a step away from the launch of the coronavirus vaccine. In late May, Novavax acquired a plant by the small town of Kostelec nad Černými lesy, around 40 kilometres east of Prague. The deal saw Novavax take ownership of a biologics manufacturing facility and ‘associated assets’. “They have started the production of the vaccine, and I know that at the moment it is a question of certificates and approvals,” the Minister of Industry and Trade Havlíček told CNN Prima NEWS. Marketwatch.com portal stated that Novavax is to produce up to one billion batches later this year, and a significant part of it is to fall to the Czech branch Novavax CZ. The Novavax vaccine uses a distinct technology from other already-authorized COVID-19 vaccines. It harnesses insect cells to churn out full-length copies of the spike protein that studs the surface of SARS-COV-2 and enables it to invade host cells. It is the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to report out results from a pivotal clinical trial. Like the COVID-19 vaccines authorized so far, it requires two doses. Another company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, is expected to announce results for a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine...
The ninth annual Dry February, aimed at highlighting the dangers of excessive drinking, begins today in the Czech Republic. The campaign “Dry February Challenge” aimed at encouraging Czech men to abstain from alcohol for the month. The event is organised by the group League of Open Men but is also encouraging women to not drink a drop of alcohol during February. The group has a dedicated website offering tips on exercises and alternative, non-alcoholic drinks, as well as advice from psychologists. The NGO prepared “A survival kit” for the courageous ones who want to join the campaign. Social media is used as a space where people share their experiences. Last year, about 6 percent of Czechs joined the campaign, which is about half a million of the overall population. When the NGO asked 300 participants after the campaign, 90 percent of them stayed away from alcohol throughout the whole month, and more than half of them even through May. The organizers point out that Czechs are among the world’s heaviest drinkers and excessive consumption threatens their health and quality of life. A recent report from OECD shows that the Czech Republic ranks 4th in terms of alcohol consumption. The report used data...
Czechs are the most distrustful nation in Europe — or perhaps the wisest — when it comes to sharing their data, according to an international survey by the EOS KSI agency. They protect their health data the most and, compared to other European countries, are more reserved about sharing their location, GPS, and movement data. Contact data (44 percent) is one type of data that Czechs are more willing to share with businesses, services, and applications. Almost two-fifths provide their personal information to third parties. The third most commonly shared item is data on shopping behavior and popularity of certain products or brands (37 percent). Only 27 percent of people share location, GPS, and motion data with third parties. Only 10 percent of Czechs share their health data. “Data is, of course, a valuable commercial tool. However, they can often help rescue services to determine the location of the endangered or in contact with an infected person, for example. In addition, sharing financial data can enable companies to better assist indebted clients with loan repayments, as is the case in our sector. Caution is certainly commendable, but people should know the point where secrecy can be detrimental to themselves,“ said...
The Czech Republic will close its borders, including those with Slovakia, for all foreigners at midnight between Friday (January 29) and Saturday (January 30). Until now, trips to the Czech Republic have been ruled by travel traffic lights, both for Czech citizens and arrivals of foreigners. With this new decision, the travel traffic light ceases to apply. Only essential travels will be allowed. This means people working or studying in the Czech Republic, essential travels to family, medical facilities, nursing homes, wedding or funeral, the iDnes.cz website reported. ⚠️ The Czech Goverment decided to ❌ ban all NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVELS to the Czech Republic 🇨🇿, regardless of which country (green, orange or red) you are travelling from. The decision will enter into force at this midnight from Friday to Saturday (30/01/2021 0:00). — Czech MFA (@CzechMFA) January 29, 2021 The ban is part of a series of new restrictive measures that are tightening the country’s lockdown. They have been approved with a goal to further limit people’s contacts and movement. Earlier in January, the day-to-day increase in coronavirus cases in the country was gradually declining since hitting a record high of nearly 18,000 on Jan 6. But the numbers didn’t drop...
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