Czech Government Offers Two-Day Leave to Vaccinated State Employees

The Czech government approved on Friday offering two days of additional vacation to state employees who get vaccinated against COVID-19 as a way to spur vaccination effort, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Friday.

The Czech Republic reported 10.19 million doses of vaccines given as of Thursday, with 4.74 million people fully vaccinated.

“The aim is to have maximum vaccination, to protect ourselves against infection from abroad,” Babiš said. “This is the main task: inoculate, inoculate, inoculate.”

Over 480,000 people are employed by ministries, state institutions, and linked agencies.

Trinity Bank economist Lukáš Kovanda said the move would deprive the Czech economy of CZK 21.4 billion. Mr. Babiš says it will have zero impact on the state budget.

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• Some 203 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the Czech Republic on Thursday, 1o more on the same day last week.
• Children aged from six to 12 will not need to undergo a test for Covid-19 prior to returning with their parents from a country designated as high risk or very high risk in terms of infection, the Czech minister of foreign affairs, Jakub Kulhánek, said on Thursday.
• Organisers of large events should check that audience members are either fully-vaccinated against Covid or have had the illness in the previous 180 days, says the Czech minister of health, Adam Vojtěch.
• The Delta variant is the dominant form of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of infections.