The head of the Institute for Information and Statistics Ladislav Dušek has suggested the country’s Covid-19 cases could reach 10,000 a day this week if the current pace of infections continues. “The number of coronavirus hospitalizations could also increase markedly this week and may soon climb to 3,000. The number of people in intensive care could double,” says Dušek, in an interview for Radiožurnál. 7,591 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in the Czech Republic on Monday, around 3,300 more than the figure on the same day last week and was the highest figure recorded since the end of March. The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus now stands at 1,813, over 250 patients are in critical condition. The reproduction number is now between 1.3 and 1.5. “To put it simply, the prevalence of active infection in the population is growing, largely among the unvaccinated, of course. But we also see an increase among vulnerable groups, including those who have been vaccinated.” “The number of patients in intensive care can double. The positive news, however, is that those very difficult cases are growing at a significantly slower pace than one year ago. This is clearly the effect of...
The Prague residential market continues to break records. Most flats of the last 10 years were sold in the third quarter of this year, with the number of vacant flats on the market currently at a historic low. And the evergreen in record-breaking is prices that don’t seem to have a cap. New flats are currently offered for an average of 137,000 CZK per square meter. For sales that have just begun, the price has climbed to 160,000 CZK per meter. Prices are also rising throughout other regions. In Brno, for example, new flats have almost caught up with those in Prague. Development companies Trigema, Central Group and Skanska published the current analysis of the residential market for the third quarter on Oct. 26. “Recently, unfortunately, we have witnessed an unprecedented decline in the apartments offered. Although new projects are being put on sale, they are far from satisfying all those interested in owner-occupied housing,” says Marcel Soural, owner of the Trigema group. The enormous demand for new housing during this year knocked down supply in the third quarter. According to the developers, 6,100 new flats for new housing were sold during the first three quarters of the year, which...
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 European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has ranked the Czech Republic in the bottom fifth of EU member states on its latest Gender Equality Index. The government is preparing a criminal complaint on suspicion of fraud due to the termination of the activities of the Bohemia Energy energy group. The company ceased operations in mid-October and has around 900,000 customers looking for a new energy supplier. Beer production for domestic pubs and restaurants grew by 2% y/y in September 2021. Beer from tanks increased by more than 4.5%, while the output of mini kegs rose by 2.3% and that of classic kegs by 1.8%. The Czech Beer and Malt Association reported that the total beer output fell by almost 5.6%. A Czech model who was jailed for eight years in Pakistan for trying to smuggle £1million of heroin into Ireland has been cleared on appeal, her lawyer has revealed. Tereza Hluskova, 25, was arrested in possession of 8.5kg of heroin in January 2018 at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport. Mandatory coronavirus testing in Czech schools will...
Czech authorities have revealed that entry rules will be tightened for unvaccinated and unrecovered EU nationals from Monday, November 1, as more than half of the 27-nation-bloc have been added to the unsafe travel list. According to the press release issued by the Czech Ministry of Health, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, and Slovakia have been added to the dark red category, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports. Moreover, the red category will now include Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, whereas Cyprus will be added to the orange category. While all fully vaccinated travellers, those with a previous COVID-19 infection and holders of the EU Digital COVID-19 Certificate and equivalent documents, are eligible to enter the country free of entry restrictions. Unlike those, unvaccinated and unrecovered travellers from red and dark red countries are required to follow these rules: Register before reaching Czechia and undergo a PCR test 72 hours or 48 hours before arrival for antigen tests Take a PCR test no earlier than the fifth day of arrival and no later than the 14th day Travellers from all categories are obliged to fill the arrival form before reaching the country. Previously, the Czech Republic abolished quarantine requirements for arrivals for all categories as the measure had been dropped. “The Ministry...
Approximately 400 restaurants will not comply with the government-imposed measures requiring them to check guests’ vaccine or certificates, representatives of the Chcípl PES initiative said on Monday. The owner of Šeberák restaurant and the chairman of Chcípl PES, Jakub Olbert, claims that the government regulation is illegal and is organizing a demonstration on Prague’s Old Town Square at 3 pm on November 17. “Our employees do not have the right to inform about the health of our guests, they would be in violation of the law, so last week we reported to the Prague Hygiene that we will not comply with government regulations and asked the Czech Trade Inspection Authority for support,” said vice-chairman of Chcípl PES Jiří Janeček. On October 20, the Czech government approved several new measures to tame a steep rise in coronavirus infections, which have reached levels unseen since late April. As of November 1, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other indoor places need to check whether the patrons have the required COVID-19 certificate confirming they have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from the virus. The government also decided to limit the time for which negative tests are valid. The national health insurance also will not cover the...
Located just a one-hour drive from the Czech capital, Mcely is a picturesque village of great mystical allure, and it is home to the beautiful Chateau Mcely, which hides within the famous St. Georges Forest. The chateau’s history began when it was built back in 1698, on the site of a former Celtic settlement. It has been home to noble families and lots of royalty over the years. The actual village of Mcely also has a significant history- the worship of female deity here has long been tradition because of its religious magnitude. There are detailed recordings of an apparition of the Virgin Mary of Mcely, which appeared to three orphans back in 1849 and 1850. Old records state that she revealed herself to the girls for nine months and told them nine different secrets in a small field between the Chateau and a neighbouring church. The sightings are known as the Mcely Miracle. The guests of Chateau Mcely report feeling a strong, loving, magical energy when they visit, almost as if the Virgin Mary’s presence still looms. The aristocratic residence, in this magical location, is the embodiment of a five-star luxury property. It’s a romantic and rejuvenating venue with both...
An employee of the operating company was fatally injured in a cable car crash on Sunday at the 1012-metre high Ještěd mountain near Liberec. As Ceska Televize reported, the attendant was alone in the cabin when it fell from a height of about 30 metres during a descent. According to the CTK news agency, 14 people were in the second cabin, which was travelling uphill at the same time. According to the fire brigade, they were all rescued unharmed from a height of 15 metres. Some suffered shock, and psychological counsellors were taking care of them. The cause of the accident was initially unclear. The cable car leading to Jested mountain above the city of Liberec has been a popular tourist attraction since 1933, and there has never been an accident. In normal operation, one cabin can accommodate 35 people. Sunday was supposed to be the last operational ride before the winter break. CT24 reported that one of the cabins had fallen off, causing the second cabin, which was carrying tourists, to move downhill on the firmly anchored support cable.
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. A cable car crashed under Mount Jested in Liberec, killing one person, officials said. One of the two cabins of the cable car crashed to the ground in the afternoon. The only person onboard, a staff member, was killed, said Martin Puta, the head of the regional government. Volkswagen’s Skoda Auto will resume production on Sunday at most of its production lines after a two-week outage caused by a shortage of semiconductor chips, a spokesperson said. The cultural parliament of Brno will discuss Brno’s candidacy for the 2028 European Capital of Culture. The debate will take place on November 3rd and is open to the public. Greenpeace will file an administrative lawsuit against the Czech Environment Ministry unless it releases information about the planned Czech-Polish agreement on the operation of the Turow lignite mine situated in southwestern Poland near the Czech border. The first edition of the Billie Jean King Cup, an international women’s team tennis competition previously known as the Fed Cup, starts in Prague on Monday.
On Sunday evening the clocks will go back by one hour, from 3 am to 2 am. Winter time will remain in effect until March 26th, 2022. Introduced in the late 1970s, the seasonal time change was conceived as an effort to give people brighter days, limit the use of artificial lighting and thus achieve energy savings. But things have come a long way in 40 years and efforts to drop the practice are brought back into the spotlight each time around. In September 2018, the European Commission proposed to end the time change in 2019 after a public survey that collected a record number of responses (4.6 million) and which revealed that the majority (84%) of European citizens want to end with that practice. Even so, the abolition of the time change must be debated and agreed by the two EU co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council (the Member States), so that it can enter into force. Already last March, the European Parliament urged to put an end to this practice from 2021, but the Council of the EU has not yet taken a position on the matter. There is one thing Europe needs to avoid: if the...
Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) thanked Taiwan for its cooperation after talks this week with Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Representatives of both countries have concluded new memoranda to expand cooperation in Internet security, the aerospace industry, the development of catalyst technologies and precision engineering. Hřib negotiated with Wu, among other things, on a direct line between Prague and Taipei. The negotiations were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Wu said Taiwan “will do its utmost to restore tourist contacts and allow people to visit the Czech Republic.” “We have talked with China Airlines representatives about the possibility of a direct line between the two cities,” he said, adding that the negotiations seem to be going well. “I would like to appreciate that, from my point of view, Taiwan is clearly a much more reliable partner than the party of the People’s Republic of China used to be for us,” said the mayor of Prague. Both Senate Chair Miloš Vystrčil and Zdeněk Hřib have been vocal supporters of Taiwan’s right to independence, drawing protest and various sanctions from China. Taiwanese delegations have been visiting the Czech Republic as part of regular bilateral economic consultations since 2016 in cooperation with the Ministry...
Bright auroras may illuminate the dark skies over the Czech Republic this Halloween weekend. A large solar flare erupted Thursday and is set to reach Earth Saturday, which could result in a strong geomagnetic storm and cause the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, to be visible across the US and Europe, including the Czech Republic. This was stated by astronomer Petr Horálek from the Silesian University in Opava with reference to information from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “If the geomagnetic storm is as strong as astronomers predict, the glow observable from our extremities will be low above the northern horizon, most likely after dark,” he said. In Europe, the forecast shows, weather permitting, the aurora borealis may be visible overhead from across Norway, Sweden and Finland, and even as far south as Scotland and St. Petersburg, Russia. It may be visible on the horizon as far south as Dublin, Ireland and Hamburg, Germany. According to Horálek, aurorae are created due to the interaction of charged particles, which travel continuously from the Sun, with molecules and air atoms in the Earth’s high atmosphere. They commonly occur between 80 and 150 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Behind the interaction...
After two years, a beautiful pre-Christmas tradition will return to Prague. From November 28 to December 23, between 16:00 and 17:00, the lamplighter Jan Žákovec will appear at Charles Bridge and lights up the lamps manually. Nowadays, the gas lights operate automatically, Advent is the only time in the year when the gas lamps are lit up by a lamplighter. Žákovec is vice president of the Lamplighters’ Guild and head of the Gasworks Museum. At 205 cm, he is the tallest lamplighter in the world. The number of lamplighters can be counted on the fingers of one hand because today, the lamps light up automatically. “I know the lamplighters in Poland in Wroclaw, Brest in Belarus and in London … there are very few of us,” admits Žákovec with a smile. “In 2002 they turned on the first nine lamps on Michalská Street, and there was a small celebration to commemorate the way the city used to be lit. There were representatives of various companies who‘d played a part, and I was there on behalf of the gasworks, to say something about gaslighting. When it came time to light the lamps, someone said: You’re the tallest, you light them. So that’s...
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