As of today, January 4, adults of all ages are eligible for a booster if at least five months have passed since their second coronavirus vaccine dose. Until now, a third dose was only available for this group six months after receiving a second vaccine dose. Security forces against compulsory vaccinations Over 3,200 members of the country’s security forces – police officers, firefighters, rescue workers and soldiers – have signed a petition against compulsory vaccination of people in high-risk professions. Representatives of Initiative 21, which is a group protesting against compulsory vaccination as such, said on Monday that altogether around 14,000 people have signed petitions against mandatory vaccines for any group of the population. Austria, Estonia, Czech Republic: A national vaccine pass Austria has applied strict sanitary measures since a surge forced the country into lockdown measures in late November. Since December 12, when the lifting of the lockdown started, the 2G rule has been applied nationwide. Only people who are vaccinated or have recovered within the last six months can visit restaurants, hotels, shops and access community centres and sports halls. The FFP2 masks, which offer superior protection, are also mandatory in such places. Several European countries, including Estonia, Latvia, the Czech...
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the declaration of a Soviet amnesty on 3 January 1942 pertaining to Czechoslovak citizens imprisoned and interned in the USSR, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) will publish a collection of NKVD investigative files in cooperation with the Department of Cybernetics at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. These files were kept on 1,000 Czechoslovaks out of a total of approximately 8,000 who were imprisoned in Gulag camps during WWII. This represents the first collection of Soviet secret service files obtained within the framework of systematic digitalisation at the State Archive of the Zakarpatska Oblast (DAZO) in Uzzhorod. “The investigation files include arrest reports, fingerprints, photographs, interrogation reports, charges, a gulag’s discharge, and a rehabilitation decision. The files include personal photographs and documents of those arrested by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which in Russian is abbreviated to NKVD, ” said historian Adam Hradilek, project leader of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. According to Hradilek, the documents represent about one-fifth of the files on Czechoslovak refugees to the USSR. The first Czechs that were repressed in the Soviet Union were those that settled in Imperial Russia...
The Czech crown hit its highest level since 2012, gaining in new year trading from higher interest rates and data showing stronger manufacturing sentiment. The Czech crown added 0.32% and was trading at 24.820 to the euro after earlier breaking the key level of 24.774 and rising to its strongest since October 2012. The currency has been steadily firming since a hefty interest rate hike on Dec. 22. “The market is rather illiquid today, but it can be expected to further strengthen, as it usually happens at the start of a year, that ‘missed train syndrome’ that some may want to jump on,” an FX trader in Prague said. PMI data published in the Czech Republic also showed growth with output and orders rising the most in months, although supply snags and rising prices spelled uncertainty for the year ahead. At its pre-Christmas meeting, the central bank raised the key interest rate by one percentage point to 3.75 percent, trying to dampen expectations that consumer prices will continue to rise rapidly. The CNB’s key interest rate is thus the highest since 2008. The koruna reacted to the increase in interest rates by strengthening between the holidays. On Tuesday, December 28,...
Prague City approved a new agreement with the Operátor ICT on ensuring the administration and development of a sensor network for monitoring the occupancy level of sorted waste containers.
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech Supreme Court (NS) has rejected the appeal of German tourist Benjamin Wittig who had been handed a one-year suspended sentence, a 100,000-crown fine and a five-year expulsion from Czechia for spray painting the Charles Bridge in 2019. President Milos Zeman on Monday appointed Zdenek Nekula of the Christian Democrats as regular agriculture minister, finalising the government of the Together coalition (Civic Democrats/ODS, the KDU-CSL and TOP 09), the Pirates and Mayors and Independents (STAN). Some 3,200 Czech police officers, firefighters, rescuers and soldiers have signed a petition against the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of some professional groups in Czechia. The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR) and the West Bohemian University (ZCU) have released the files which the then Soviet secret police NKVD kept on 1,000 of some 8,000 Czechoslovaks interned in gulags during WW2. Czech manufacturing activity beat expectations in December, supported by a stronger upturn in production and new orders, the Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed on Monday. The headline PMI rose to 59.1 in December, the highest in four months, from...
On April 14, the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic voted in favour of a bigger protection of cyclists on the roads. 67 out of the 102 present deputies (the number was lowered due to the Covid-19 pandemic) approved the proposal laid before the Chamber by Petr Dolínek of the Czech Social Democratic Party. Only two deputies voted against the motion. Road users will have to give 1.5 meters of space to cyclists while overtaking, 1 meter in areas with a maximum speed of 30 kph. A somewhat heated debate preceded the acceptance of the proposal. Some of the deputies based their arguments on their own experience of sharing the road. “It is an easy, predictable method, tried and tested in other countries,” said Ondřej Profant, a deputy for the Czech Pirate Party. In 2019, cyclists accounted for 8% of road deaths in the EU. Cyclists and pedestrians are an often neglected category of road user when it comes to road safety measures. While more car occupant fatalities are prevented due to better in-vehicle protection, the decrease in the number of vulnerable road users’ fatalities has not followed the same pace. France, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Portugal have all...
One of the ‘best meteor showers of the year’ will peak this evening, when the Quadrantids will send up to 50 shooting stars per hour streaking across the sky. This is the first meteor shower of 2022, and will peak on January 3 at about 21:40, appearing to emanate in the constellation Bootes, near the Big Dipper. Quadrantids are especially known for their bright ‘fireball’ meteors that leave large explosions of light and colour that persist longer than average meteor streaks. Unlike most meteor showers, which originate from debris left behind by comets, the Quandrantids come from asteroid 2003 EH1, which may be a ‘dead comet’. To get the best out of the shower and see as many shooting stars as possible, you’ll need to find a dark sky area, with minimal light pollution and a clear horizon, according to NASA, which says ‘they are visible throughout the night sky.’ The name comes from Quadrans Muralis, which is a former constellation created in 1795 by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that included portions of Boötes and Draco, but has since fallen out of use. They peak from late December into very early January each year, and unlike other meteor showers...
A new night train between Prague and Brussels has been ranked by TimeOut among the 22 best new things to do in the world in 2022.
The Czech Republic will seek to use its European Union presidency in the second half of 2022 to build stronger links with the bloc’s mainstream members, counterbalancing ties with traditional regional allies Poland and Hungary that are in conflict with Brussels. “We have a system in place for pretty close cooperation with our counterparts in the Visegrad Group” that also includes Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, Czech Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek said in an interview Monday. “That’s good and it has been productive for us but we need to reach beyond that and create something similar with other countries too.” The Czech Republic sides with the EU against Poland and Hungary on issues ranging from the treatment of LGBTQ communities to the independence of the Polish judiciary, said Bek. “Our position in their rule of law stand-off with the European Union will definitely be different to theirs,” he said. Led by Petr Fiala, the new administration has pledged to continue cooperation with the Visegrad Four group founded in 1991 by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland to promote their entry to the EU and NATO. The Czech Republic could ally with Germany, its biggest trading partner, and Austria...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. Household expenditures are expected to rise steeply in 2022. The price of electricity will rise by 17 percent on average, the price of gas by 16 percent. According to economists inflation could reach 8 percent in February. The compulsory twice-weekly testing of employees in firms and institutions will be covered by health insurance. The testing, which is to help curb the spread of Omicron, is to begin in mid-January. 962,987 people visited the Prague Zoo last year, about 110,000 more than 2020. 1,037 cubs of 200 species of reptiles, birds and mammals hatched or were born in the Prague Zoo in the last twelve months. According to Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS), the Czech Republic can’t get out of the so-called Green Deal, as President Miloš Zeman proposed in his Christmas message. Czech diplomacy and politicians condemned today’s ruling of the Russian Supreme Court ordering the dissolution of the international NGO Memorial that uncovers the crimes committed under the Communist regime in Russia.
The Czech Ministry of Health recently tightened the conditions for entering the country. The measure is aimed at combating the new omicron coronavirus strain. As of today, January 3, foreigners who do not have a residence permit in the Czech Republic are obliged to have a negative PCR test result before entering the Czech Republic. Only foreigners vaccinated with a booster dose have an exception. “Only foreigners vaccinated with a booster dose have an exception if they are vaccinated in a country whose certificate the Czech Republic recognizes. Another exception is children under 12 years of age,” the Ministry of Health statement reads. On the other hand, except for having to provide a pre-entry test, unvaccinated and unrecovered travellers from these six countries and the Azores must also undergo another test while in the Czech Republic. The test can be taken on or after the fifth day. “Unvaccinated persons or persons who have not developed covid-19 must subsequently undergo an RT-PCR test between the 5th and 7th day after entering the territory of the Czech Republic and wear a respirator when leaving the residence or accommodation until the result of this test,” the Ministry explained. Except for the testing requirements, everyone...
For the second time in the last 16 years, there were no fatalities between Prague trams and pedestrians.
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