Health professionals are reassessing the current quarantine guidelines regarding the novel Coronavirus mutations that have made their way to the Czech Republic. The nation’s Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová went on Czech Television to explain that people who came into contact with someone infected with one of the Covid mutations and wore only cloth masks should quarantine while those wearing respirators may not be required to quarantine again even if they were closer than two meters away. The so-called Kent-variant, a highly infectious strain first discovered in the UK, has been confirmed to reach the Czech Republic and is believed to be 30 to 70 percent more contagious. Epidemiologists believe that anyone coming into contact with someone infected with a variant, for any amount of time and not just the previously stated 15 minutes, may be at risk. “The truth is that the minimum contact time of up to 15 minutes has been omitted precisely because new mutations, especially the British one, are more infectious in a shorter time than the original coronavirus,” Rážová told CeskaTelevize. Anyone suspected of carrying a British, Brazilian, or South African mutation of the virus will be subject to quarantine and the discretion of the hygienist...
Over one million people in the Czech Republic have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 371,235 people have received both necessary doses, data from the Health Ministry show. Since late December, when vaccinations started, a total of almost 1.38 million doses were applied by Monday evening, with the number of those who have received at least one dose reaching 1,007,422. The Czech Republic is in the tenth position in the European Union in terms of its Covid-19 vaccination rate, with 9.4 percent of its population having received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with Malta and Hungary, which lead the EU with 22.5 and 16.4 percent, respectively. Like most member states, the Czech Republic started vaccinations in late December. About 263 million people have been vaccinated in the world by now, which is 3.4 percent of the world population. The best faring state in this respect is Israel, with 59.8 percent of its population vaccinated. The infection rate has started to ease in recent days but tough measures are likely to run into April. On Monday, government ministers said it was not time to ease restrictions despite cases starting to drop. In total, 1.48...
The Census will start on 27 March and it will be primarily online. It is possible to fill in the electronic census form (questionnaire) by 9 April. Others will have to fill in the paper census form (questionnaire) from 17 April to 11 May. The 2021 Census in the Czech Republic (CR) will also concern foreign nationals who will be present in the territory of the Czech Republic at midnight from Friday 26 March to Saturday 27 March, except for diplomats and those who will be staying in the territory of the CR for less than 90 days. The online census form (questionnaire) will be, the same as the website scitani.cz, available in seven language versions. The Population and Housing Census is carried out once in 10 years in the Czech Republic, similarly to most of the countries of the world. The previous Census took place in 2011 and therefore it is now time to find out how Czechia has changed over the last decade. Besides the Czech Republic, the Census is carried out in more than 50 other countries of the world. Who has to get counted? Besides citizens of the CR, nationals of foreign countries are also obliged to get counted provided...
Prague city hall has rented a luxury hotel where homeless people who contract COVID-19 can convalesce and those who come into contact with someone with the disease can isolate. The city’s Centre of Social Services (CSSP) deputy director Ludmila Tomešová said those housed in the hotel were offered three meals a day, full medical attention and television and other amenities while they recovered. “So the hotel … has guests, even if they are not standard commercial ones, and it is full all the time,” she told Reuters at a four-star Prague hotel in the city centre that has housed about 250 people since November. The Czech Republic has been among the hardest-hit countries in the world during the recent wave of the pandemic. Deaths from the virus have reached nearly 25,000. The per-capita infection rate was the third-highest in the world in the past week, according to the Our World in Data website. Tomešová said Prague, which has about 4,500 homeless people, was trying to help people find shelter and get access to other services once they tested negative and left the hotels. For some guests, the stay was a rare taste of luxury. “It’s the first time in my...
Police officers and hygienists will check compliance with covid quarantines and isolations. “The police will receive the lists from the regional hygienic stations and carry out intensive inspections,” said the Minister of the Interior Jan Hamáček (ČSSD) and the Minister of Health Jan Blatný (ANO). “Choosing to ignore mandatory isolation and quarantine orders is not only against the law, but it’s also putting citizens, first responders, health professionals, and the most vulnerable at risk of exposure to the virus,” Hamáček added. According to Blatný, compliance with the basic rules, including quarantine and isolation, will significantly help to relax the restriction measures adopted by the government. How do the quarantine and isolation work? In February, the Czech government extended quarantine and isolation from ten days to two weeks. People who have already had Covid-19 in the last three months or who have already been vaccinated with both doses, do not need to be quarantined. People without symptoms who have been infected need to stay in quarantine. In isolation are those in whom the infection has been confirmed. On Thursday, March 4, the Czech Senate approved a proposal to pay CZK 370 a day to those who are ordered to quarantine. This payment is...
The walls of this Pilsen school have been painted with a protective coating that eradicates bacteria and viruses One of the classrooms in Pilsen’s 31st primary school has received a special nanotechnological paint coating on its walls and ceiling. According to a press release by the Pilsen Municipality, the school teaches and looks after children of frontline key workers such as paramedics, firefighters, and police officers. Protection against COVID-19 The special coating was applied for free by the company Nanotechnologie 21 s.r.o. (NT21) and it is said to have protective qualities; that is, it is believed to eliminate viruses, bacteria, allergens, fungi, and fumes produced by volatile substances such as disinfectants and cleaning products. Commenting on the protective coating, the Council for Education Lucie Kantorová said, “This is a Czech patent used in healthcare in our country and in the world. Teachers also praised another of the effects of this technology, namely the elimination of odours. Children thus have the highest possible protection that can currently be obtained on the market.” Speaking to the Municipality of Pilsen, Petr Brož from NT21 explained how the coating works: “This coating will retain its functional properties for up to ten years. It was originally intended for healthcare, but for example, for its ability to absorb...
Czech company Snuggs founded by Linda Šejdová and Tomáš Zahradník only started two years ago, but their yearly turnover in 2020 reached almost 100 million CZK. Founded in 2019, Snuggs has created a line of underwear aimed at maximum comfort and a sense of security during menstruation. The reusable underwear helps reduce the amount of waste packaging coming from single-use products such as tampons and pads. Produced based on ethical values, Snuggs has sold around 200,000 products. “Our mission is not to push out all other alternatives, but we want to offer women another product and provide them with a wider choice,” says Linda Šejdová, co-founder of Snuggs. Snuggs conceptualized their product when Linda wore menstrual panty products from America. She inspired herself from these products, realizing how sustainable they were. However, the quality of the products did not satisfy her, which led her to the idea of creating her own line of panties. She got in touch with Tomáš and with the University of Liberec, then started creating. During the pandemic, the fairly young and successful company has not had as much impending trouble as other companies, surviving and managing to stay afloat because of the fact that menstrual...
Monday, 22 March will mark exactly one year since the death of the first person in the Czech Republic from COVID-19. A 95-year-old man in the Bulovka hospital in Prague was the first to succumb to the disease here. On the occasion of that sad anniversary, the church bells of all the religious organizations involved in the “Minute of Silence” initiative will ring on Monday, 22 March at noon. According to the event’s organizers, it has been organized in response to the fact that the Czech public debate about the pandemic has primarily been conceived of as an organizational or technical discussion. “The human dimension of the spread of this disease and its destructive influence on our society has been quite forgotten. The grief and the death have, therefore, just remained statistics; it is as if we have forgotten that death on this scale impacts the state of our society as a whole and its ability to cope with the current situation,” the initiators of the event say in their announcement. The event is the initiative of the human rights activist Jana Hradílková, the environmental activist and journalist who has been reporting on the pandemic Jan Kašpárek, and former communist-era dissident and political...
Covid-19 restrictions may impede most of us from visiting other districts in the Czech Republic, but luckily, Prague is a city with a plethora of beautiful and stunning surprises. If you’ve run out of ideas, here are some curiously pretty and interesting sites to check out for the next time you head out in the city. Blanka Tunnel ART The public installation of the Czech-Argentine artist Federica Díaze has become the dominant feature of the new relaxation zone and park in Letna. The installation is located on the concrete surface itself of the Blanka tunnel, which transforms the mere tunnel into a piece of art. Everything was created thanks to the initiative of local citizens, who have long been troubled by the view of the spacious and untreated concrete exudation of the Blanka tunnel near Stromovka in Prague. Cemetery in Dolní Břežany The Břežanský Cemetery is located on the western edge of Dolní Břežany and loosely connects to a park in the city center. It is an unconventional work that builds on the history of the village with its philosophy. Thanks to this, we will find elements belonging to Celts, Slavs, or Christians. At bird’s view, one can see that the...
The growing demand in the market has created room for a new type of service, such as zero-waste shops. To buy goods in these stores means to shop environmentally friendly products and make a massive difference to the collective global footprint. Zero waste shops have gained popularity in the past few years with a growing understanding of plastic pollution, waste issues, and global warming. Do you also think that there are too many packages, and do you want to try a change? Life without waste and excess plastic is not so tricky anymore – you can find several shops in Prague where you can buy zero-waste products for your household and yourself. What do you need to prepare for shopping in a zero-waste shop? More than with other purchases, it is essential to decide at home what and how much you want to buy. Why? Firstly, to have somewhere to store the goods. There is usually no other packaging in the store than the ones you bring. Containers can be different – sacks, glass bottles, plastic cans, or cans in which you store spilled rice or flakes at home. Secondly, we prevent unused food from ending up in the trash by...
Who doesn’t need some happy news these days? Just in time for the United Nation’s annual International Day of Happiness on March 20, the results of the 2021 World Happiness Report have been released—and the results will put a smile on your face, despite the ongoing pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people around the globe. Finland has been named the happiest place in the world for the fourth year running, in an annual UN-sponsored report. The World Happiness Report saw Denmark in second place, then Switzerland, Iceland, and the Netherlands. Data from analytics researcher Gallup asked people in 149 countries to rate their own happiness. Measures including social support, personal freedom, gross domestic product (GDP) and levels of corruption were also factored in. “We need urgently to learn from Covid-19,” said report co-editor Jeffrey Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. “The pandemic reminds us of our global environmental threats, the urgent need to cooperate, and the difficulties of achieving cooperation in each country and globally.” Besides the happiest countries in the world, the Happiness Report also looked at the places where people are the most miserable. This year, countries like Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Jordan were...
As vaccination efforts have increased across Europe, countries like Greece and Croatia are already preparing for large amounts of tourism. In Croatia, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tomáš Petříček is currently negotiating conditions of entry for tourists visiting the Adriatic sea from the Czech Republic. Safe locations to visit will be designated by a special marking stating “Safe Stay in Croatia”. According to Petříček, Greece will accept an antigen test as an adequate requirement for those who have not yet been vaccinated. They are anticipating the country’s tourism season to begin on May 14 if safety conditions permit. “They are either being tested or will show sufficient immunity as a result of the Covid -19 disease they have already undergone, or they will submit a negative test for covid-19,” Petříček said. This year trains will continue to run from the Czech Republic down to the Adriatic coast with stops along Croatia at Rijeka and Split. Croatia has long been a popular tourist destination for Czechs. Last year, 511,000 Czechs visited the country between Jan. and Sept. despite the global pandemic transpiring. Croatia has implemented new health precautions for travelers to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among tourists. The Stay...
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