Czech Activists Urge Lawmakers to Observe “Pandemic Victims Day”

Local activists are submitting an application to create a national holiday honoring the victims of the Covid-19 virus calling it Pandemic Victims Day.

On Wednesday, a proposal was given to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Radek Vondráček as well as the Speaker of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil.

The proposal suggested that Mar. 22 be dedicated to the remembrance of those who have lost their lives due to the pandemic.

The date is significant as at noon on Mar. 22 of this year, a minute of silence was observed throughout the Czech Republic along with church bells ringing which marked exactly one year since the first person in the Czech Republic died from the virus.

In an announcement, organizers of the Minute of Silence stated,  “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.”

Advocates for the proposed holiday would like Pandemic Victims Day to apply to the next calendar year in hopes that the pandemic will be over by then and the country will have seen it’s last Covid-related death.

One of the organizers for Minute of Silence was Petr Pospíchal who was asked about the proposal’s likelihood of gaining support by lawmakers.

Pospíchal stated, “Ordinary people with their daily worries, hit by the severe consequences of a pandemic, also need to hear something other than various difficult-to-understand considerations or day-to-day political operations.”

A similar proposal has been into law in Canada as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month that on Mar. 11, Canada would observe National Day of Observance.

As of Wednesday, the death toll in the Czech Republic stood at 27,329 and death per day are declining throughout the country although data are continuously being gathered and the numbers will continue to change.