corona prague Archives – Prague Morning

Increasing coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic are likely to result in Norway applying travel restrictions to the country this week.

The move was signalled on Monday by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), which published similar notifications in July before restrictions were applied to travellers from Spain and Belgium.

Norway’s health authorities designated EEA and Schengen countries as ‘green’ or ‘red’ depending on current infection rates. To remain ‘green’, the figure must be under 20 infections per 100,000 residents in total over the past two weeks.

Once a country is ‘red’, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises against travel that is not strictly necessary to that country, and self-quarantine is required for travellers returning or arriving from it. This also means people cannot travel from ‘red’ countries to Norway for tourism.

NIPH said on Monday that it would recommend travel advisories for the Czech Republic to be changed to ‘red’ at the next update scheduled for later this week, unless any change in the situation occurs in the meantime.

The final decision on travel advice is taken by the government based on NIPH assessments.

The Czech Republic has exceeded the 20 per 100,000 resident infections threshold, resulting in the Norwegian public health authority’s forthcoming recommendation.

“New figures show that the Czech Republic is at 26.8 new Covid-19 infections per 100,000 residents for the last 14 days, and the trend is increasing. We are therefore now notifying that, unless the situation changes, NIPH will recommend that the Czech Republic become ‘red’ country and thereby encompassed by quarantine rules,” NIPH head of department Line Vold said in the statement.

Updated quarantine rules and travel advice normally comes into effect at midnight on Friday.

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The day-to-day increase of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Czech Republic has surpassed 200 for the second straight day.

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch says the number of infected reached 247 on Wednesday, the biggest increase since June 28.

One of the latest clusters appeared in Prague where 76 people have been infected in a nightclub.

Vojtěch added that “the government will discuss a possible return of some nationwide restrictions” but did not give any further details.

“I want to wait until Friday and see how the situation develops. If there is no stagnation with the number of new patients, then we will probably have to take certain preventive measures throughout the country,” Vojtěch said.

Most likely, wearing face masks in indoor spaces will become compulsory again and the limit for participants in public events will be reduced. The restrictions should come into effect on Monday, July 27th.

The numbers are mainly influenced by the large outbreak in Moravia-Silesia, but the worsening of the situation is observed in some other regions.

Currently, there are 5,062 people in the country who are sick with the coronavirus, according to Ministry of Health data.

The Czech Republic has had 14,570 cases with 364 deaths.

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The tally of active cases of the new coronavirus in the Czech Republic has risen to 4,764, above the previous high of 4,737 seen in April, health ministry data showed on Sunday.

The new cases are mostly registered in the north-east where a mine outbreak occurred and have so far been milder than before.

The active cases have gone up as the daily has been above 100 over the past few days, outscoring the number of recoveries.

Outbreaks are rising in the region, and Covid-19 is spreading to at-risk groups over the age of 65.

The number of people in hospitals was 135 on Saturday, far below capacities of the national health system as presented by the government.

On Friday, authorities tightened coronavirus restrictions in the Moravian-Silesian region. Under the tightening of restrictions, the compulsory wearing of face coverings has been reintroduced, while restaurant opening hours have been reduced.

Workers crossing the borders of Poland and Slovakia to start their job must submit a negative test every two weeks for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Additionally, checks have been implemented for individuals at border-crossings.

The Czech Republic had 13,885 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, with 113 new infections on Saturday. So far, 358 people have died.

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The Czech Ministry of the Interior paid 708 million CZK to the Chinese company Eastern Air Logistics for 49 flights transporting protective equipment during the state of emergency.

Facing an acute shortage of protective gear for medical staff in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, the government reached a deal to buy masks and other equipment from China, where the virus first emerged.

The data was provided by the Ministry of the Interior on the basis of the Act on Free Access to Information, Zdopravy.cz wrote today.

The total amount does not include the Ruslan cargo and the transport of material from China by Smartwings and CSA.

The Ministry of the Interior also paid for the last Antonov An-124 cargo plane with medical supplies from Shenzhen to Pardubice. The state paid 18.9 million CZK to Volga Dnepr.

Since March 20, aircraft have carried around 2,000 tons of respirators and other materials from China to the Czech Republic.

On May 4, the Czech Interior Minister and Central Crisis Staff head Jan Hamáček thanked all those who participated in the mission, especially the firefighters and police officers who helped unload and distribute the materials.

A government expert who wishes to remain anonymous sparked the Czech government to take fast action against the coronavirus in a move that likely saved thousands of lives, said Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček while discussing the government’s response to the crisis in its early stages.

“The moment I realized that a train was coming at us from the opposite direction was when I saw a mathematical model that, based on the development in Italy and Spain, showed how the number of infected people in our country will rise and when there will be a collapse of the health care system. When the author of the model presented it at the Ministry of the Interior, there was complete silence. We realized that in a matter of weeks, huge trouble will hit us, and I said that the prime minister must see the model,” said Hamáček.

According to the interior minister, the expert in question does not wish to reveal his name as he does not want to be famous.

The Czech Republic was one of the first countries to initiate lockdown measures and close its borders to hard-hit countries like Italy in moves that may account for the country’s comparatively low death and infection rate.

“We’re still working with his team. He has done a huge amount of work for this country. If he agrees, I will thank him publicly, but at this moment, I don’t have his consent,” added Hamáček, who together with this expert, presented the mathematical model to the National Security Council.

At the time, some members of the government, including Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, were hesitant to believe the numbers in the model predicting a catastrophic scenario.

“I kept the numbers on my mobile phone, and every day, I checked the numbers of confirmed cases and it fit the model almost exactly. The prime minister did the same, and when it turned out on the fifth or sixth day that it followed an exponential growth, he understood that we’re in trouble,” said Hamáček, according to whom Babiš reacted “imperatively and quickly.”

Hamáček also said that he was aware that in order to provide medical supplies as quickly as possible, he often had to act regardless of common rules, but he hoped that people would be lenient in judging his actions.

“I admit that I don’t remember much from the period between March 14 and the arrival of the first plane with the supplies. All my co-workers said that I was in a strange state of mind, being on the phone the whole time. It was an unimaginably strenuous period,” Hamáček admitted.