Former Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who has recently made a splash by publicly defying government restrictions to stem the Covid-19 spread, has caught the disease, his spokesman said Tuesday. “He wasn’t feeling well and he tested positive for Covid this afternoon,” said Petr Macinka, spokesman for the Vaclav Klaus Institute think tank. “He underwent a scan and left for treatment at home,” he added. A former liberal economist and staunchly eurosceptic Czech prime minister, Klaus served as president in 2003-2013 after succeeding the late Czech anti-Communist hero and former dissident playwright Vaclav Havel. During his term, he became famous for being the last politician in the EU to sign the bloc’s crucial Lisbon Treaty. Since the pandemic began, the 79-year-old Klaus has repeatedly appeared in public without the mandatory face mask, and in January he was handed a fine worth CZK 10,000 for that. In the same month, he delivered a speech at a rally against the restrictions, saying the government should know that “we have had enough of restrictions and instructions harming our lives”. He also stood up against Covid vaccination, prompting a response from his successor Milos Zeman, a veteran leftwinger and Klaus’s former political foe. “Get the...
The IATA sees the digital travel pass, a mobile app developed by the association, as an essential tool for the reopening of international borders. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reportedly said the digital Covid travel pass should be ready “within weeks” as several airlines are conducting trials of the app that verifies the health status of passengers. While governments around the world gradually lifted restrictions on the entry of foreigners, many of them announced their own set of requirements that inbound travellers must fulfill to board a plane. The IATA sees the digital travel pass, a mobile app developed by the association, as an essential tool for the reopening of international borders without having the risk of importing the infectious disease. Several airlines, including Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Air New Zealand, are conducting trials of IATA travel pass in an attempt to seamlessly manage the digital travel documentation of passengers. “We are currently working with a number of airlines worldwide and learning from these pilots. And the plan is to go live in March,” Vinoop Goel, IATA’s regional director of airports and external relations, told BBC. “So basically we expect to have a fully functional working system over...
Czech freediver David Vencl has set a world record in men’s swimming under the ice. David Vencl swam the longest distance of 80.9 meters holding his breath on Tuesday. Vencl took one minute 35 seconds for the record at a lake in Lahost in the northern Czech Republic. Organizers said the ice was at least 30 centimeters thick, a condition for the record to be recognized. “The problem is not distance, but cold,” explained the extreme athlete, who has been training for the record for a long time. For safety, Vencl swam attached to a rope and was accompanied by divers with breathing equipment. There were about five holes in the ice in the event of an emergency. David Vencl represents the Czech Republic in scuba diving, in which he has won the national title and holds several records. The previous record was 76.2 meters by Stig Severinsen of Denmark in April 2013, according to the Guinness World Records. The record for the longest swim under the ice was first set at 57.5 meters by the famed Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof in 2000.
On Monday, Prague City approved a plan to implement over 750 charging stations for electric vehicles within the next four years. The charging stations will be placed strategically throughout the metropolis and in the following five years there will be several thousand more charging stations installed. The legislation approved was titled General Development of the Charging Infrastructure in the Capital City of Prague until 2030 and city management also approved a plan for the construction of charging infrastructure. Prague’s Mayor Zdeněk Hřib believes this initiative will help Prague catch up to other modern European metropolis’ in terms of electromobility, “As part of the analysis of the environment, technical solutions and trends in the field of public charging for General, Prague was inspired, among other things, by experience from other European capitals with a comparable population. In Vienna, Hamburg, or Rotterdam, electromobility is already in a much more advanced stage of development, so Prague is happy to learn from them, said Hřib. Prague city councilors approved the legislation on Monday with the goal of increasing the air quality within the city. Real-time metrics of Prague’s air quality can be tracked using Accuweather’s Air Quality Index and currently shows the city at...
The situation surrounding the COVID-19 disease in the Czech Republic is critical and the healthcare system is under immense strain. Hospital bed capacity “is close to its absolute limits, primarily due to a lack of personnel”, said Deputy Health Minister and hospital bed coordinator Vladimír Černý at a press conference on Tuesday. The lack of qualified personnel means that the ministry is not considering activating a field hospital in Brno, Mr. Černý said. Dozens of new intensive care beds are being set up in Prague at the moment, according to the deputy health minister. Dozens of new intensive care beds are being set up in Prague at the moment. The field hospital The Czech army erected a field hospital in the northern Prague district of Letňany in October and put the facility on standby, equipped to care for as many as 500 COVID-19 patients. But because of the lack of available staff, the field hospital has been packed up at the end of January. The hospital was designed to treat less acute COVID cases so other hospitals can focus on treating the most severely ill. The main section of the hospital had ten separate sections, each with 50 beds. They...
A significant component of public transportation systems is information itself, which is actually the main source that facilitates people in accessing such services. As urban cities thrive toward creating more modern, easily accessible, and better transportation services, the urge to convey information on such services more effectively is becoming a necessary aspect to maintain and improve the functionality of public transportation means i.e. buses, metro, trams, etc. and beyond that, is its high potential to affect a country’s economic activity and growth. In the coming months, Prague City will announce an international graphic design competition for a unified public transport information and orientation system. Compared to the current one, it should provide clearer and more modern instructions for moving around the city, especially between the various types of public transport. The new system will consist of pictograms, LCD screens in buses, trams and departure panels at stops. “Currently, we have counted eight different information systems in the metropolis, each with its own administrator – for example, in the metro, and in the streets of different city districts,” said Adam Scheinherr, Prague’s Deputy Mayor for Transport. “The new system will be clearer for travelers and potentially cheaper for public budgets,” added Scheinherr. The new...
The coronavirus pandemic has hit Czech education particularly hard. Compared to the rest of Europe, Czech children have been studying from home for the longest period of time, and thousands of them have dropped out of the education system completely. The autumn wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit the Czech Republic much harder than the spring one, but the data about school closures in the European Union does not reflect that. While countries in which the pandemic killed tens of thousands of people in the spring opened schools in the autumn and remained so until the end of the year, Czechia switched to distance learning in large parts of spring and autumn. The UNESCO data, as well as data from individual EU countries, reveal the record-length of remote learning in the Czech Republic. Statistics also show other Czech specifics, such as the different approaches to the 1st and 2nd grades in elementary education. While most states returned the entire first stages of elementary schools to full-time teaching, followed by the second stages in a week or two, the Czech Republic did so only with those first two grades in the first stage. The situation where first and second-graders go to...
Due to the ongoing spread of the British mutation and deteriorating epidemiological situation in the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Health issued an order to make the wearing of respirators or two surgical masks mandatory in shops, hospitals, public transport, and places with a higher concentration of people. However, the new rule will apply from Thursday, and not as originally from Monday (February 22) at midnight. There is a great demand for FFP2 type respirators, which are sold out in some locations. Representatives of medical supplies companies said that stocks are gradually being replenished. Latest statistics The health ministry recorded 4,002 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, a jump of around 1,100 from a week ago. The official death toll from COVID-19 has reached 19,330, a daily rise of 413 which includes deaths from Sunday and revisions to previous days, according to ministry data. In total, 1.157 million infections have been recorded since March 2020. Current hospitalizations rose to 6,049, more than double the government’s target level. The ministry reported 545,381 vaccine shots have been administered.
The British actress, 42, explained how she moved to the Czech Republic with her partner of 10 years, mathematician and businessman Robie Uniacke, 60, and their two sons Solo, eight, and Atom, six, while shooting The Wheel of Time. The Gone Girl star said the family decided to relocate for the duration of filming to avoid a ‘constant back and forth’. Rosamund is currently filming as Moiraine the sorceress in The Wheel of Time, an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s cult novel series of the same name, hence the impulsive move abroad. When quizzed on whether she’d learned another language in lockdown, the actress said that Mandarin was the family favourite. She revealed: “My kids speak Mandarin, so they have been home-schooling me!” ‘I should really be learning Czech and I am aware of the irony of living in the Czech Republic and learning Mandarin!’ Rosamund is set to star in the Netflix comedy thriller I Care A Lot, which has been released on the streaming platform on Friday. The award-winning actress plays the villainous Marla Grayson, who makes her living serving as a court-appointed legal guardian for the vulnerable elderly. The actress said her family has been enjoying living in...
A good introduction sets a perfect trend for the rest of the essay. Your introduction plays a considerable role in motivating people to keep reading your work. It also breaks down the focus areas of your writing. To grasp the reader’s attention, you need to make your essay interesting. Look at the following creative ways to start an essay. The introduction is an integral part of the essay, and now you will learn the secrets that all the best writing services use to create the perfect essay that claims the highest score. Ask a Question The goal of any introduction is to engage the reader. If the opening is dull, the main body of your article will seem boring as well despite your diligent approach. Therefore, you should spend more time crafting your introduction as it determines one’s interest in the rest of your work. Starting with a question is an excellent way to make the reader pay attention to your essay. By asking a question, you prompt them to think of an answer. Conveniently, you provide the solutions further in the paper, which increases their curiosity. So, they become compelled to keep reading. For example, ask, “How do you...
Around 6,800 properties had been sold on the Bezrealitky in 2020, which has in turn successfully attracted new types of customers looking for a simple and facile platform to sell, buy, rent, and rent out properties. Bezrealitky’s offer to let their clientele manage their own property operations, instead of relying on a real estate agent is also proving to be attractive to customers. Because of the platform’s success, they’ve now added a new service to encompass more of potential customers’ needs. They will launch a new ‘Comfort’ service, which will enable the sale or purchase of a turnkey property. Turnkey properties are fully renovated homes or apartment buildings that an investor can immediately buy and rent out. Bezrealitky will offer a team of specialists for various processes – from assistance with inspections, pre-selection of applicants, technical inspection of properties, photography and legal services. Consequently, the property owner does not pay anything for the Comfort service. The price of the service, fixed in advance and individually determined, is therefore deducted from the final above-standard sales price. Moreover, purchasing real-estate directly through Bezrealitky’s service is quite a profitable solution, since the services of sales specialists will be jointly provided by Bezrealitky and...
Three German cities awarded Škoda Transportation a contract to deliver ForCity Plus low-floor trams under a pan-European tender announced by the three companies of public transport. The contract, which has a total value of CZK 3 billion crowns, covers the delivery of 24 low-floor trams and includes an option for 21 additional vehicles. Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg an der Havel and Cottbus are the three cities that will receive ForCity Plus vehicles to replace the existing high-floor trams, which are nearing the end of their service life. The vehicles will be delivered in two widths because, despite a large number of identical requirements and conditions, there are also a number of individual requirements of each city. Under the contract, Škoda Transportation will deliver 13 trams to Frankfurt, four will go to Brandenburg an der Havel, and the remaining seven were ordered by Cottbus. The new trams will increase the attractiveness of public transport in all these three cities. The ForCity Plus low-floor trams will be low-floor and are therefore also ideal for people with reduced mobility. The new vehicles will be air-conditioned and barrier-free, will have multifunctional spaces for prams, wheelchairs and bicycles. The new trams will have an...
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