Czech scientists are currently utilizing genetic technologies to manipulate hops used in producing beer. Researchers working at the Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences in České Budějovice are using genetic modification tactics like the gene-editing tool CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) to produce newly altered and healthier hops. Back in 2012, the CRISPR method was discovered and used to cut out harmful DNA at precise locations. This method for genetic manipulation involves harnessing the natural ability of bacteria to identify and disable foreign DNA and later be replaced. Since its’ inception the CRISPR method has been used by farmers to produce higher crop yields with higher amounts of disease-resistant nutrients. It also achieves this without the use of chemicals and relies solely on natural bacteria. The method has already worked with tomatoes and wheat for example but has never been done with hops until now. The team has discovered that if they isolate the genes responsible for the production of bitter acids and make targeted changes to increase the amount of bitter acids, the beer will have more medicinal substances. Scientists at the Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences would like to point out that there...
The unused military field hospital in Prague-Letňany will be packed up due to staff shortages even as high numbers of COVID-19 patients stretch Czech health-care facilities to the limits, officials said on Friday. The army erected the field hospital on the outskirts of Prague in October on the site of an exhibition ground and put the facility on standby, equipped to care for as many as 500 COVID-19 patients. “We are unable to roll out the hospital in a way that makes sense,” Deputy Health Minister Vladimir Cerny told a news conference. “If we (do) have staff, it seems to be more purposeful to reinforce standard hospitals than to activate the field hospital.” The 500-bed hospital was constructed by the Czech Army last October, as a hurried response to the rapidly rising number of Covid-19 cases. The state also purchased 4,000 beds from hospital and nursing bed maker LINET. There were 5,856 COVID-19 patients in Czech hospitals as of Thursday, including 970 in intensive care – about 20% below peaks in mid-January. But six of the country’s 14 regions reported zero or single-digit numbers of available intensive care beds. Officials have used ambulances and helicopters to move patients to less...
The Czech government met on Thursday evening to discuss possible tighter measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The new measures come into force at midnight from Friday to Saturday. You can find them below: Business trips The cabinet has decided to tighten rules restricting the movement of people. Trips to own recreational facilities are still allowed. However, people can stay exclusively with members of their own families. Accommodation services are allowed only for people on work trips. They need to produce a written confirmation from the employer or the customer confirming they are on a work trip and are not allowed to bring family members with them. Free antigen tests According to Blatný, the Czech government will try to give citizens at least one COVID-19 test for free every three days (now it every five days). “We approved a reduction in the time between individual antigen tests, which are covered by health insurance. Commuters can be tested more often. In addition, this decision has the potential to reduce the virus load in the population.” Voluntary public testing was originally scheduled to end on January 15 but was extended by the Ministry of Health until further notice. Nearly 1.5...
Budvar, the Czech brewer that has been in a long legal dispute with U.S. giant Anheuser-Busch’s overuse of the “Budweiser” brand, increased output to a record last year when the pandemic saw people drink less in bars and more at home. Budejovicky Budvar NP, a 125-year-old state-owned brewery, said Thursday that its output rose 3% to 1.73 million hectoliters in 2020. The brewer´s exports were up almost 3.5% last year, director Petr Dvorak said. Budvar sells its beer in some 80 countries and Germany, one of its key markets, grew particularly strongly in 2020. Revenues also hit a record last year, growing 1% from 2.8 billion CZK in 2019. It did not release profit figures. Demand for its beer in tanks and barrels declined last year as bars and restaurants were closed for a long time but Budvar was able to meet rising demand for bottled beer, it said. The brewer has been expanding in recent years to be able to produce over 2 billion hectoliters of beer a year. That investment made it possible to react to “dramatic” changes on the markets amid the coronavirus pandemic. Budweiser Budvar is the fourth largest beer producer in the Czech Republic and...
The Czech government will discuss further tighten coronavirus measures on Thursday afternoon, PM Andrej Babiš said on Wednesday evening. As CNN Prima reports, Babiš said that “it is not yet time for relaxation and there is no room for complacency in epidemic control. On the contrary, it is necessary to consider how to enforce or tighten existing measures.” The prime minister noted that the number of newly infected began to grow this week. “We must address measures that should manage the pandemic better than before,” he added. “We are in a situation where people who comply with the measures are upset and feel that the government is insufficiently enforcing them. Then there are other people who do not follow the measures and they are upset that we are tightening them.” Babiš did not give any details on the new measures. Finally, the PM confirmed that “the government will not make changes to the anti-epidemiological system PES”. Latest statistics The health ministry recorded 9,144 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, down from 9,605 new cases reported on the same day a week earlier. In total, 956,155 infections have been recorded since March. Hospitalizations stood at 6,043. Officials have sought to cut the number of hospitalized...
Long queues of cars formed at the Czech-German frontier this week and cross-border workers voiced frustration as tighter restrictions for travel into Germany came into force. At the Folmava-Furth im Wald border post — where the Iron Curtain once separated East and West — tempers flared as people waited around two hours to cross what is now an internal EU border. “It’s cold and it’s snowing and there aren’t even any toilets. It’s difficult for everyone, including my employer, because we do not know how long this is going to last,” Yveta Haladova, a Czech nurse working in Germany, said. The car park at the border was full and around 150 cars could be seen in the queue to cross. A centre for carrying out antigen tests had been hastily set up in a customs building. “I’ve just had my test and I’m waiting for the result, which should arrive by SMS or email,” said Lukas Kottnauer, an auto industry worker. “It’s very annoying, especially since we are going to have to test every 48 hours.” As the Czech Republic is now classed as high risk by Germany because of an elevated coronavirus infection rate, anyone arriving from there must...
The Czech health ministry has recommended regional health officials halt new COVID-19 vaccinations for the coming two weeks to prioritize second doses due to concern about delivery delays, a ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The situation in a specific region must be evaluated primarily by the regional coordinator, said ministry spokeswoman Barbora Peterová. “The Health Ministry recommends interrupting first-dose vaccinations and suspending reservations for such vaccinations for 14 days,” Peterová said. Some regions, including Central Bohemia, have canceled reserved dates for seniors who have already registered for vaccination. “It’s not about the organization, but about deliveries. Now we are in a situation where we can vaccinate everyone with the second dose, but we will not be able to open any term for seniors over 80 years old for the next 14 days, because we do not have vaccines,” confirmed the Governor of the South Bohemian Region Martin Kuba (ODS). According to the ministry, 222,450 vaccines have been administered so far. Pfizer-BioNTec and Moderna are the only two vaccines available in the Czech Republic. AstraZeneca’s vaccine could be approved by the European Union by the end of the month. Czech Seniors are primarily vaccinated in social and medical facilities. Latest statistics...
Statistics show that 15% of the employees who work in the Czech Republic are foreigners, and they constitute a substantial number across various sectors. In the past decade, from 2010 to 2019, the number of foreigners in the Czech labor market has tripled. Evidently, the Covid-19 crisis had interrupted this growth, but it has only been a temporary stunt. These figures have been drawn up from statistical records documented by the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ). Dalibor Holý, from the ČSÚ, has commented that the number of employees would not have increased without the presence of foreigners, and he correlates this statement to the fact that many Czech citizens are seniors and past their prime, while young adults and those who are fit to work constitute a much smaller number of the Czech populace. “From 2010 to 2019 the number of foreign employees increased by 407,000, while the number of Czech employees decreased by 63,000”, said Dalibor. Industries that have seen a rise in the number of foreign workers include the agriculture and forestry industry, with a rise from 4 to 17% since the past decade. Meanwhile, in administration, 54% of the workers in 2019 were foreigners. In construction, foreigners now...
The Czech Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday shut poultry markets and exhibitions and banned farmers from keeping flocks of fowl outside after fresh cases of bird flu were detected in the country’s south. Veterinarians confirmed the H5N8 avian influenza in seven wild ducks and swans near the city of Ceske Budejovice and in the district of Pisek south of Prague, adding to previous cases in wild swans and one domestic poultry flock detected in the past week. The ministry said it was also putting limits on moving poultry around and selling birds from registered large farms to small keepers. The ban on keeping flocks outside applies to registered, larger flocks. The ministry urged all keepers to make sure that flocks do not come into contact with wild birds. The H5N8 flu is lethal to birds but is not known to be transmissible to humans. It has been spreading rapidly in Europe, putting the poultry industry on alert after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds. This was the Czech Republic’s first bird flu outbreak in a year, according to Czech news site CTK. Last year hundreds of thousands of birds were killed across Europe after numerous outbreaks...
Many restaurants throughout the Czech Republic opened their doors on Saturday despite government mandates prohibiting them from doing so. This act of disobedience was done in support of the Chcípl PES initiative. The restauranteurs opened for supporters of their efforts to come and sign a petition they have been circulating. The petition is necessary for them to gain enough signatures to become their own political party. The group seeks to gain political party status in order to re-open their restaurants and pubs fully as political meeting spaces which they believe to be exempt from government-ordered closures. Jan Hamáček the Minister of the Interior publicly rejects this interpretation of the anti-epidemic regulations. A Prague restaurant called Šeberák participated as well and had over a dozen people come to support the movement. Many other bars around the country took part in the protest and each attracted their own small crowds who came to express support, make voluntary contributions, and sign the petition. The Chcípl PES movement is said to also have membership cards identifying supporters to ensure that anybody that does not support the movement and sign the petition would not be served at participating establishments. Although many other Prague businesses had...
Czechs flocking to escape coronavirus restrictions with a day’s cross-country skiing, sledding, or snow-shoeing in a national park have brought a surge of Covid infections to a tiny village, a local official said. Mayor of Modrava – a village and municipality in Klatovy District in the Plzeň Region – Antonin Schubert said tests last week identified 13 positive cases among the 90 people who live there, making the hamlet that sits in central Europe’s largest forest area, the Sumava national park, the most infected in the region. Ski lifts were closed but, with local pubs allowed to sell take-out food, crowds built up in the village, which became much more popular after Alpine resorts shut their doors. “At every take-out window, the line of people is much bigger than if they were waiting for the ski lift,” said the mayor of the hamlet surrounded by gently rising peaks near the German and Austrian borders. “No visitor is wearing a mask.” On a recent weekend, skiers, sledders and others — most without masks — congregated in small groups as they strapped on their gear to explore the snow-covered trails around 170 km from Prague. Mountains areas across the Czech Republic have...
In a dog training centre built inside a shipping container located in a Czech mountain village, Renda, Cap, and Laky are being put to the test. They sniff at six vessels, each containing a piece of cloth with scent from patients with COVID-19, negative donors, or fake samples. The team of dog trainers is working in their own time and reports a 95 percent success rate in the detection of the virus in samples of human scent. “The study is designed to verify dogs’ ability to detect COVID-19 and generate a method enabling the use of trained dogs in combating the pandemic,” said project head Gustav Hotovy. “The method should also work with other diseases, even more, lethal than Covid-19. In the end, we should be able to detect a huge number of people in a very short time with a trained dog,” he adds. The first study confirming dogs are able to detect tissue attacked by a virus was conducted in the United States about a decade ago. Hotovy, a retired cynologist whose team started training the dogs last August, said that the signature changes “so much that it is immediately discernible for the dogs”. The samples used are...
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