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...
Ondřej Vlček, CEO of Avast and one of the wealthiest Czech businessmen, has taken the lead in introducing new models of working, that could revolutionize the way companies work in the future. Avast has not only successfully kept afloat during the Covid-19 crisis, but they have also actually drawn inspiration and adapted exceptionally to the new troubling circumstances. Decisive changes in Avast were made as early as September 2020 last year, when the antivirus giant chose to give their employees the possibility of working at home permanently if they wanted to. This year, Avast has decided to provide two models of work for their employees: the conventional ‘Work from the Office’ model, and the ‘Work from Anywhere’ model. The ‘Work from the Office’ model lets employees spend most of their time in the office, or they can also just visit the office for meetings and if it’s necessary. The latter model, ‘Work from Anywhere’, which is a concept that was solidified because of the pandemic, allows Avast’s employees to work from their homes, cafés, or practically anywhere that suits their interests. This new model of work that has inevitably emerged because of the Coronavirus and its global restrictions, has fundamentally...
When it comes to company closings, 2020 was a year for the record books. In 2020, 16,111 companies ceased to exist in the Czech Republic, 353 more than the year before and at the highest number in the country’s history. On the other hand, 27,228 businesses were established, the lowest number in the past six years. A total of 11,117 companies have been added in the Czech Republic, which is the least since 2003. The data were published on Tuesday, January 26 by Czech Credit Bureau (CRIF). The number of shut-down companies began to increase significantly during 2015 and the trend continued last year, although it was partly dampened by government interventions. Last year, the number of newly established companies also decreased, 2842 fewer than in 2019. “This significant year-on-year decline was registered mainly in March, April, and October,” said CRIF analyst Věra Kameníčková. The number of limited companies being set up in the country was on a steadily growing trajectory until 2017 when it peaked at 31,204. However, the growth registered a slight decline in 2018. During 2020, most companies were established in Prague (12,844), in the South Moravian Region (3,339) and in the Central Bohemian Region (2,169). Most...
The Swedish furniture sellers IKEA have announced they are planning to open the Czech Republic’s first planning studio. The studio will be the first in the entire region of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia and will focus on the planning of kitchens, storage spaces and bathrooms. IKEA experts will be available to work with customers in designing spaces and planning projects. Over the past fiscal year, the company has experienced a massive boost in online sales and intend to improve their online store experience as well as add new dispensing points in new locations in the region of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria. An exact location of where this new video design studio would be has yet to be announced. “We are looking for an ideal place where a lot of Praguers go and where they shop,” IKEA Business Manager Federica Barberis tells České Noviny. A small design location was already featured in a convenient shopping location like Wenceslas Square but had only lasted a year before closing in August of 2019. A spokesperson for IKEA state that its presence on the square was only intended to be temporary. IKEA Planning Studios have previously opened in London, Madrid,...
When distant suburban cemeteries had been built by the turn of the 20th century, Prague’s Electric Company, the local public transport operator, devised a plan to connect them with central residential areas using special “funeral trams”. Not only to carry coffins but also to host funeral rites during the journey to the cemetery – a truly futuristic notion combining the new electric current and old catholic faith, 19th-century ritual, and 20th-century efficiency. The proposed Kafka-esque tram consisted of two separate compartments, each for one ceremony: there was space for eight mourners, the coffin, funeral wreaths, and a separate coupé for the clergyman. Once World War I broke out, the plans have been put on hold. For the time being, ambulance tram-cars appeared in Prague to connect railway stations with nearby hospitals as soon as shell-shocked front-line soldiers started flowing into the ancient capital. But the city got its funeral tram after all: on October the 22nd at 3 pm, the first tram-car departed from the military hospital at Karlovo náměstí to carry two coffins of deceased soldiers to the infamous Olšany cemetery. The tram was designed to carry four coffins in two compartments accessible from the sidewalls of the vehicle,...
Ensuring stability in the wider neighborhood of the European Union with regard to migration and conflict, especially in Africa, will be another priority, says Petříček. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček, the priorities of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2022 will be the enlargement of the European bloc, migration, ensuring stability in the EU neighborhood, and cooperation with Asian states. “On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I can confirm that one of the priorities will be the Western Balkans and the enlargement of the European Union. Of course, the issue of ensuring stability in the wider neighborhood of the European Union with regard to migration and conflict, especially in Africa, will be another priority. Furthermore, we talk about cooperation with Asian states,” Petříček said in an interview with the Czech News Agency. According to him, the coronavirus pandemic has also revealed the importance of strengthening the European Union’s ability to respond to crises. “I think that strengthening resilience will be one of the cross-cutting themes that we will promote not only in the European Union’s foreign policy but in general,” he said. The budget of the...
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...
EU officials have created a new category and level of risk for countries in Europe, according to how impacted the country is by the Covid-19 virus. In light of the past weeks, new strains of the virus have emerged, and on top of that, there are dilemmas impeding the faster distribution of vaccines. This has been a decisive factor for the relevant authorities to create the ‘dark red zone’ category. President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen has said, “We propose that a newly introduced category of dark red zone would show that in this zone the virus is circulating at a very high level”. “Persons traveling from dark red areas could be required to do a test before departure, as well as to undergo quarantine after arrival.” “And in view of the very serious health situation, all non-essential travel should be strongly discouraged – both within the country and of course across borders. At the same time, it is absolutely essential to keep the single market functioning.” This category has been added to the already existing green, orange, and red zones. The color system is based on a map created by the European Centre for Disease Control...
Let’s discover, how many wonderful and creative foreigners live in the Czech Republic! India is the second-largest country in the world in terms of population. One can not imagine the level of competition between the people for better jobs, places in better universities, or even better-living conditions. Sometimes it leads to migration, whether across India or across the globe. Today there are 4165 Indians living in the Czech Republic. Most of these people are very successful. They run their business, they are doctors and engineers. One of these people is Vansh. He came here with a revolutionary idea: to shoot the best Indo-Czech film. He is a foreigner who might live next door.
Russian authorities have applied for registration of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the European Union, the country’s sovereign wealth fund financing the jab said Wednesday (20 January). Earlier this week, Hungary has signed a deal to buy two million doses of Russia’s vaccine. It is the first EU country to break ranks and unilaterally approve the shot as frustrations build in Europe over delays in supplies of Western vaccines that are hampering economic recovery. The Czech immunologist Václav Hořejší assures the public. “Concerns about the Russian or Chinese vaccine are not substantiated. In both countries, excellent scientists have been working on vaccine development. Just as the European or American ones,” says Hořejší to CNN Prima News. “In addition, Sputnik V is based on the same principle as the AstraZeneca vaccine.” Scientists have raised concern about the speed at which Moscow has launched its vaccine, giving the regulatory go-ahead for the shot at home and beginning mass vaccinations before full trials to test its safety and efficacy had been completed. Moscow has said Sputnik V is 92 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 based on interim results but has not yet released the full dataset for the trials. “Without...
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