The Czech branch of Ronald McDonald House Charities has reached an agreement with Motol Teaching Hospital after 15 years of effort. Ronald McDonald House Charity is a worldwide network of organizations with a common goal and mission: to help families with seriously ill children stay together. RMHC builds and operates houses near children’s hospitals, which then act as facilities and alternative homes for families of seriously ill children who do not live within the reach of hospitals. Today, there are already 376 of them all over the world, and more are still being built. The first Ronald McDonald House Charity in the Czech Republic will be built at the University Hospital in Motol. It will offer free and comfortable accommodation with all the necessary facilities to ensure mental well-being for up to 21 families at once. “We will offer parents rest and facilities that will support their psyche so that they can spend as much time as possible with their child,” says the director of the foundation, Ivana Pešatová. If all goes well, the Czech House of Ronald McDonald could open in the second half of next year. Families that use the house will pay a symbolic fee, but families...
A storage facility near the Prague-Braník train station engulfed in flames on Monday morning and officials are still unsure of the cause. The fire was first noticed around half past 9 and took a very long time to get under control firefighters are still currently combating the flames. Officials warned local residents near, Braník, Kamýk, and Modřany against ventilating their home and allowing any of the smoke to come inside. It’s estimated that at least five volunteers and six professional firefighter units were collaborating to try and put the massive fire out. No injuries have yet been reported as medical professionals, police forces, and other rescuers were on the scene ready to assist the firefighter units. “The fire was divided into three sections. Chemists from the laboratory did not find out whether the limits of hygienic standards were exceeded in the residential area of Braník and Modřany. A cloud of smoke was monitored by the helicopter,” added Kavka. Trams did not run on the line to Braník for more than seven hours, and the parallel Modřanská street was closed. The operation of tram lines 2, 3, 17, and 21 was limited for seven hours. According to the Prague fire brigade...
Tenants of non-residential business premises rented to the city of Prague can submit an application for a 30% discount until 31 May Throughout the past year, businesses have struggled tremendously. Some have seen a sharp decline in revenue while others have had no other choice but to permanently close. Understanding the severity of this, Prague has offered support to entrepreneurs, in an effort to help them recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. On 9 April, the municipality of Prague announced that entrepreneurs who are based in buildings in the capital can now apply for a discount on rent until the end of May. Commenting on this, Councillor Jan Chabr clarified that entrepreneurs will have access to a 30% discount. “We are fully aware of the current crisis situation associated with COVID-19, which has serious economic consequences for tenants of non-residential premises in the capital city of Prague, and therefore, we are always looking for ways to make it as easy as possible for them,” Chabr disclosed. On its website, the City of Prague clarified that the 30% discount will only apply for the third and fourth quarters of last year. More specifically, the director of the property management department...
The largest COVID-19 vaccination centre in the Czech Republic was put through its paces on Friday, but it will not be fully operational until May as the country badly hit by the pandemic waits for more vaccine shots. “The vaccination centre at Prague’s O2 Arena complex will start in full at the beginning of May because at the moment there are not enough vaccines for it to go at full capacity,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis said during an inspection on Friday. The centre is to be a key component in ramping up inoculations. But it faces a three-week delay until May 3 before starting with a capacity of 7,000 people a day. The government has come under criticism for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including its failure to order as many vaccines as it could under the EU’s program. Following a spat in Brussels over the distribution of extra vaccines among member states, the Czechs are now projected to lag behind all other EU countries by mid-year. Deaths from the disease have hit 27,617, more than doubling in 2021 alone. On Thursday, 5,245 new cases were reported, the lowest weekday tally since mid-December. In total, 1.57 million infections have...
The Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences and the Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) initiated a sampling and testing of the inside areas of public transport to find out if they can detect the coronavirus. During the current month, they plan to take around 500 samples from surfaces and the air on buses, trams and metro cars and stations. The findings of their research should reportedly be available at the end of May. Workers in protective gear will take swabs from vehicles’ bars, handrails, seats, control buttons, ticket terminals, elevators, stairs, and even benches on platforms. Moreover, they will also take samples directly from the air, which will be aided by their use of a device that sucks in the oxygen around it, and collects coronavirus particles using a filter. The samples will then be taken to a laboratory in České Budějovice. They will in turn use newly developed ‘biosensors’ to detect the presence of the coronavirus. The samples taken will also be checked by experts through PCR tests. Results will be drawn to comparison from both the biosensors and the PCR tests. The biosensors have been developed by Hana Lísalová from the Academy of Sciences. The development...
Prague airport today celebrates 84 years of its existence. The Václav Havel Airport in Prague, formerly called Ruzyně, started operation this week in 1937. Beginnings of the airport: 1932−1937 The history of the airport dates back to 1929, when the proposal of the then Czechoslovak government on the construction of a new airport was adopted. The construction of the airport started in July 1932 with minimal use of machines so that the construction could help to reduce unemployment during the crisis. The construction was completed on 1 March 1937 and the airport was immediately described by foreign experts as one of the largest in Europe. Its modern and timeless terminal became a model for many other new airports across Europe. The first aircraft landed at the new airport on 5 April 1937 at 9 a.m. It was a Douglas DC-2 travelling on the Piešťany – Zlín – Brno – Prague route. This landing was the official start of operations of the brand-new airport Prague-Ruzyně. The first international aeroplane on the Vienna – Prague – Berlin route landed in Prague one hour later. The war years: 1940–1945 During the occupation and World War 2, the airport was operated by the military...
On Sunday evening, April 4, the Prague police intervened to break up an illegal party in one apartment in the city center. It was attended by 56 people, mainly foreign students. “We received a call around 8 pm about a party on the top floor of an apartment located at Vojtěšská street. Organizers were being identified as the party ended while some participants were taken to police stations,” said police spokesman Yar Rybansky. Police officers found small quantities of drugs (marijuana and methamphetamine). They will have to answer for this offense within the framework of a separate administrative case. In the past few weeks police have increased controls of the measures imposed. The curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. is still in place, while the State of Emergency will officially terminate at midnight, April 11, 2021.
You see them all over city streets: pedestrians wearing headphones or earbuds — their faces glued to their phones as they stroll along oblivious to their surroundings. Known as twalking, the behavior is not without its dangers. Headphone-wearing pedestrians often can’t hear the auditory cues — horns, shouts, or the sound of approaching cars — that signal imminent harm. The City Hall of Prague 14 decided to paint in white two different warning signs (a crossed-out mobile phone and headphones) on the ground in front of Rajská zahrada metro station and at the Lehovec tram turnaround. The City Hall is planning to mark other crossings in the district with other warning signs. Citizens can turn to the municipality with different suggestions. “We are still at the beginning of this project. We will be happy if the citizens will help us and we welcome every suggestion,” said Deputy Mayor Hukal. The drop in road fatalities in the Czech Republic during 2020 was of particular note, falling to the lowest levels since these statistics were first collected in 1961. There were 460 road deaths in the country in 2020, a reduction of 87%. Meanwhile, serious injuries from road crashes also dropped to...
A 4-year-old toddler was brutally attacked by a fighter dog without a leash and muzzle at the Petřín park around noon on Thursday. A man has admitted himself to the police on Saturday afternoon, claiming he’s not the owner of the dog, said Jan Rybanský, the spokesman for the Prague police. On the other hand, the man reportedly fled the scene immediately after the dog attacked the child, taking no accountability for the tragedy. The boy was transported to Motol Hospital, while he was in critical condition. The dog had reportedly left the child with multiple and serious injuries since the dog had suddenly attacked him brutally. A rescue crew was sent to Petřín park, which supposedly arrived very quickly at the scene. The child was in a dire state, but he was apparently still conscious while he was in the ambulance. After further examination, they found that the boy had sustained bite injuries on his head, back, and chest. The injuries were life-threatening for such a young and small child. Currently, the toddler has been operated on but is now in an induced coma. Hospital staff did not want to comment in any further detail on the case, with...
The plan to open the O2 Arena for the purpose of vaccination based in Prague has been reportedly postponed. The Central Military Hospital was already preparing the venue until the decision was made to annul the process, despite PM Babis’ claims of getting the venue into operation on the 11th of April. There has been speculation that perhaps the opening of the venue could continue in May, but no one can reportedly confirm this as they simply do not know, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek. Moreover, according to the officials, one of the main reasons for this postponement is that the Czech state does not have enough shots to vaccine 10,000 people daily. On the other hand, Prague Municipality initiated their own move by establishing their own vaccination site in the Congress Centre. Supposedly, it should be in operation by Tuesday, April 6. “What we get, we inoculate. At the beginning of the week we inoculated 93 % of the delivered shots,” says Nikola Birklenová from the Office of the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region. The number of vaccinated individuals fluctuates daily. About 1,000 vaccines can be released on weekends, usually between 3-5.5 thousand on weekdays. The large-capacity...
Beginning in April, Prague Public Transport will begin conducting Covid sampling on public transportation, taking swabs of contact surfaces rather than passengers. In a partnership with the Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physics, DPP will attempt to collect at least 500 samples on trams, buses, and trains running throughout the city. The program is said to be inspired by findings from other major metropolitan cities like London, where researchers found no evidence of the virus on public transportation. Scientist will use biosensors and air extraction mechanisms to detect the presence of the Coronavirus. Within the trains they will be taking swabs of seats, poles, buttons, and handles. At metro stations, things like staircases, handrails, and benches will be sampled as well. Airborne samples will also be taken while passengers are onboard the buses, trams and trains. To accomplish this, scientists will be using a technology developed by the Institute of Physics. “Their (biosensors) is based on a specially designed polymer nanobrush that specifically captures coronavirus particles contained in a liquefied sample, ignoring everything else,” Alexandr Dejnek, head of research at the Institute of Physics told novinky.cz. Similar research was conducted in shopping malls in a project funded by...
The 26th Volkswagen Prague Marathon moved from its traditional spring date to October 10. Throughout the pandemic, and against all odds, RunCzech has found dozens of creative ways to stage safe, small running events, along with other ways of keeping the running community engaged in their beloved sport. That has required near-constant meetings among RunCzech team members and authorities in local and national government. But finding an opportunity to stage its signature event—the internationally acclaimed Volkswagen Prague Marathon—has eluded them. Until now. Health and public officials now feel more confident that moving the race to the fall will make it possible for RunCzech to safely host a large-scale event, and accommodate the thousands of fans and volunteers who come out to support the participants. And RunCzech has set a date—October 10, 2021. According to Tomas Coufal from the RunCzech team, the capacity of the event will be determined in conjunction with health and government officials. „Our priority is definitely runners‘ safety and health,“ Mr. Coufal adds. „So runners who have already registered in 2020 will have the option of transferring their registration to 2022. He also pledges to keep runners informed about all vital health updates. In the meantime, RunCzech...
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