prague Archives – Page 5 of 28

The Kremlin would like to see the monument to Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev that was taken down recently in Prague reconstructed in either the Czech Republic or in Russia, if need be.

The bronze statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev was taken down last week to make way for a World War II memorial, prompting the Russian embassy to protest.

On Thursday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu wrote to his Czech counterpart Lubomir Metnar asking him to hand over the statue to Russia.

The Czech minister responded this was not possible because the figure belongs to the city.

“We do not accept these actions and express our regrets in view of this. Of course, we would like to have this monument reconstructed — either on Czech land whose residents should be grateful to this man, we are convinced, or on Russian land if need be,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which examines serious crimes, said it had opened a probe into “defiling symbols of Russia’s military glory,” a charge punishable by a fine or community service.

Although the move is largely symbolic, the issue could affect diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Last August, the statue was covered in red paint by unnamed vandals. Prague city hall then covered up the statue, but pro-Konev protesters tore down the tarp and held a rally in its support.

The monument was similarly abused many times before.

Marshal Kove statue was originally unveiled during the Victory Day celebrations on May 9, 1980.

The Prague authorities set up a campground in Troja district on Císařský ostrov (Imperial Island), where homeless people will be able to respect the prescribed quarantine.

“At the moment, the camp will host 20 homeless people with suspected coronavirus, as well as those who test positive for COVID-19 but do not need to be hospitalized, it said,” said Petr Hlubuček, Deputy Mayor for Security.

“Access to the center will be decided based on medical advice”, he added.

In addition to 20 beds, homeless people can find a dining room, showers, and toilets. The capacity of the facility can be increased by up to 40 persons if necessary.

Homeless people are among the most vulnerable to coronavirus, with individuals three times more likely to have a severe respiratory problem, which underlines the need for a rapid response.

Previously, the Prague City Hall was actively looking for different options for resettling homeless people during the quarantine.

Some of them found refuge in dormitories and in the under-tribune premises of Strahov Stadium.

The Prague Crisis Staff has already arranged more than 400 accommodation places in different parts of the city.

“Altogether, we have 480 places available since this week, the majority are in hostels and other accommodation facilities,” said Milena Johnová, Health, and Social Councilor.

There are around 230,830 homeless people living in the Czech Republic, according to a census carried out by the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs and published on Thursday.

Most of the homeless concentrate in large cities and towns. About 3,250 of them live in Prague.

Join us on Telegram and follow our Insta Stories to read the latest updates on the coronavirus in the Czech Republic.

Despite an increase in the amount of testing, the graph depicting the increase in transmissions is going down from 11 percent to around 5 percent.

According to the Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch (ANO), this means that the Czech Republic has managed to stop the uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19.

“We managed to stop the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 and we can prepare for a return to normal life in the coming weeks. We are not in the same situation as Italy, Spain, USA or the United Kingdom. The situation is developing very well,” Vojtech said.

Ladislav Dušek, director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS), confirmed the data. “We have increased the testing capacity. It is a clear signal that something is happening in the population and that the spread has stopped.”

The reproductive number (R₀₎of the virus has also decreased, ie the number of people able to infect one person with the disease. It started at 2.64 and now fell to 1.1. The Ministry of Health expects it to decrease to 1.02.

R₀ tells the average number of people who will catch a disease from one contagious person. If a disease has an R₀ of 5, a person who has the disease will transmit it to an average of 5 other people, as long as no one has been vaccinated against it or is already immune to it in their community.

If R₀ is less than 1, each existing infection causes less than one new infection. In this case, the disease will decline and eventually die out.
If R₀equals 1, each existing infection causes one new infection. The disease will stay alive and stable, but there won’t be an outbreak or an epidemic.
If R₀is more than 1, each existing infection causes more than one new infection. The disease will spread between people, and there may be an outbreak or epidemic.

“It does not mean eliminating the virus, but that one person can infect on average one another,” added Dušek. According to him, it is important “to continue to know the behavior of the virus.”

Original projections saw 14,200 infections in the Czech Republic by the end of April, now it has been revised to 10,600.

The Czech Republic had 5,033 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection as of midnight. So far 181 people have recovered from the COVID-19 illness and 91 people have died.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced on social networks that six French patients will be transported to the University Hospital in Brno. “France turned to us for help with the hospitalization of its patients. Due to the sufficient capacity, we accepted their request,” wrote Babiš.

“This is a very important sign that we are also able to help others,” he added.

Babiš announced that some shops may open on Thursday. The shops under consideration include, children’s stores, footwear shops, stationaries, and hardware stores.

France on Saturday reported 441 coronavirus hospital deaths in 24 hours, lower than the record number of 588 recorded the previous day.

This brought the total number of deaths to 7,560 since the epidemic began, top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters. Of these, 5,532 died in hospital and 2,028 in old age facilities.

Salomon said there were now 28,143 people with coronavirus in hospital in France – up 711 from the day before, with 6,838 of them in intensive care – a daily increase of 176 critical patients.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic reached 4,475 on Sunday morning, the Health Ministry reported.

The number of victims increased to 62 today at 8:30 am and 78 have fully recovered from the infection. Over 80,000 people have been tested to date.

Francie se na nás obrátila s žádostí o pomoc s hospitalizací svých pacientů. Vzhledem k dostatečné kapacitě jsme jim vyhověli. 6 z nich by mělo být transportováno do @FNBrno. Po Itálii, Španělsku a Slovinsku je to další evropská země, které rádi pomůžeme.

— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) April 5, 2020

BB Centrum in Prague 4 has been decorating with an unusual car since yesterday.

The work is a legendary Porsche 911 by the Czech artist and sculptor David Černý.

His eight-meter long installation is made up of eleven movable segments, and its opalescent color refers to the beetles living in nature.

Why a car?

“The location near Prague’s highway and my ambivalent relationship to the car on one side, and on the other my fond for the iconic Porsche 911 since I was a child,” explains Černý.

In the past 30 years, Černý has become the most prolific Czech sculptor. His work ranges from the monumental, like the giant stainless-steel kinetic sculpture of Kafka’s head in the centre of Prague, to the subtle, like the enigmatic and barely noticeable “Embryo” installed as part of the downspout outside the Theatre on the Balustrade, where Havel premiered his early plays in the 1960s.

Černý’s Quo Vadis (Trabant), installed in the garden of the German embassy, is a reminder of the mass exodus of East Germans to the west before the Wall was breached on 9 November 1989.

His rendition of St Wenceslas – mounted on a dead horse suspended upside-down from the ceiling of the Lucerna Palace – was inspired by a period of political depression in the late 1990s.

His works radiate self-deprecating humour that seems intrinsic to the Czech nature, though it seldom finds expression in its public art.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.

Bike rental company Rekola has extended the opportunity to use its service for free in six Czech cities thanks to the support of Hello bank!

Until April 2nd and for the first 15 minutes, you can use Rekola bikes for free.

“We are pleased to offer free alternative transport around the city during these trying times. If we follow the recommended hygiene rules, then rented bicycles will become a suitable means of transportation in the coming spring season, ”said Gabriela Pitgartova from Hello bank!

In addition to Prague, Rekola operates in Brno, Ceske Budejovice, Olomouc, Frydek-Mistek and Mladá Boleslav.

“Rekola and the Prague Transport Company have always been good friends and allies, and friends should help each other during a crisis. Since it is necessary to minimize contact with people during an epidemic, the bike is currently the ideal means of transportation,” says Vít Ježek, founder of Rekola.

Bicycle renters regularly sanitize the contact surfaces of vehicles. “As a rule, it is enough to observe basic hygiene habits and, above all, wash your hands regularly. We also recommend wearing gloves,” the company said.

About Rekola

Rekola is bicycle sharing system and it started in Prague in 2013 as a small project of Vít Ježek. As of 2020, it is operating in six Czech cities and in a Finnish city Vaasa.

The company is operating more than 2000 bikes, most of them are located in Prague. Daily ridership in 2018 was 4,700 people.

The bikes can be unlocked through an official app or SMS. User unlocks the bikes manually through the code which is given from the app or SMS.

How does it work?

Download an app, sign up and choose your subscription plan.
Locate the nearest bike on the map.
Find the bike and read the 6-digit number written on the frame.
In the app, press the large Rekola button and enter the 6-digit number. The app will give you a code for the lock.
Unlock the bike, and enjoy a full hour of riding.
When you are finished, return the bike anywhere within the zone. Lock the bike in a bicycle stand or to any fixed point.

“As a government, we are thinking about how the country will return to normal life. But we will get there when we are 100% sure that we have measures against the virus,” said Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

At the same time, he appealed to Czech citizens to observe emergency measures and hygiene.

According to him, the State of Emergency in the Czech Republic will be extended by 30 days. “I don’t think we can avoid it,” added Babis. The news is reported by CT24.

As of Friday morning, there are 2,062 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection in the Czech Republic. Ten patients have fully recovered, nine died. A total of 31,127 tests have been carried out.

The Department of Health has also changed the testing conditions to Covid-19. Either fever above 37.5 degrees, dry cough, or shortness of breath are sufficient.

The Czech Republic declared the State of Emergency on Thursday 12 March 2020, due to health threats related to the occurrence of the SARS CoV-2 coronavirus, for 30 days.

Under a State of emergency, the government also banned international passenger transport but kept freight business open.

Coronavirus has been affecting the lives of many people lately, including small breweries.

Due to the closure of restaurants, their demand dropped significantly. These circumstances led to the initiative Zachraň pivo (Save the Beer) to help them with the sale of alcoholic beverages.

At the moment, there are 1,306,833 half-liter glasses of craft beer sitting in tanks.

“Thousands of beers are waiting to be rescued. Brewed, fresh and unpasteurized beer is perishable. Throwing several thousand liters into a canal can put an end for some of us. Do you want to help Czech microbreweries? ” stated the post on the Facebook page.

According to the representatives of this initiative, it is not difficult to help. “Just look at our map, find the nearest store, buy and drink beers. Do you know a more pleasant way to help someone?”

“A quarter of about 500 Czech microbreweries will not survive the crisis”, said on Wednesday the president of the Czech-Moravian Brewery Association Jan Šuráň.

According to him, beer production in microbreweries has fallen by an average of 80 to 85 percent.

“These people will last for a month. The government should act as quickly as possible to compensate for the crisis measures. Restaurant operators pointed out that based on the Crisis Act, paragraph 36 states “the state is obliged to compensate the damage caused to legal and natural persons in causal connection with crisis measures with interest-free loans, withholding tax payments, or forgiving insurance payments.”

Microbrewers would join restaurants in the case of a class-action lawsuit. “If the government does not support microbreweries, there will be thousands of unemployed people”, according to Šuráň.

The Czech Republic ramps up efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus by banning meetings of more than two people outside the same household and mandating the closure of nonessential businesses, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

The news is reported by Česká Televize.

The Czech Republic’s government decided to impose a two-week quarantine on 16 March with the exception of travel to work, to health facilities, and a few other exceptions.

The Ministry of Health has recently extended the measure, until April 1.

The draconian measures which will change every aspect of Czechs lives included:

All gatherings of more than two people in public were forbidden – meaning a ban on all social events, including weddings and baptisms
Communal play and exercise areas inside parks will also be shut down, but not parks themselves
Places of worship such as churches and mosques must also shut, except to host for funerals

When in public, people should stand at least 2 meters apart.

Germany took the same measure three days ago when Merkel announced that “spending time in public space is only permitted on your own, with another person who does not live in the household or with members of your own household. When in public, people should stand at least 1.5 meters apart.”

After Italy, Spain, and Austria, the Czech Republic was the fourth European country to restrict people’s movements due to coronavirus.

As of 6pm on Wednesday, there were 1,654 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection in the Czech Republic. Health Minister Adam Vojtěch has said that there are 19 people in serious condition and on ventilation machines.

In the wake of current government restrictions extending until the end of April, the tourism industry will decrease by 142 billion CZK. Approximately 173,000 full-time jobs will be directly threatened.

If restrictions against the spread of the disease continue until the end of June, the impact will increase to 202 billion CZK and threaten 246 thousand jobs, according to studies by the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHR) and Economic Impact.

Another scenario considers the possible impact if restrictions continue until the end of April and borders are closed by the end of May. The number of visitors would fall by 47 percent, impacting sales of tourism-related services, which would mean a decrease of 286 billion CZK. This option would deprive public budgets of approximately 60 billion CZK.

If government restrictions lasted until the end of June and the borders remained closed until the end of August, the drop would be 67 percent. Taking into account revenues from services related to tourism, this would mean a decrease of approximately 408 billion CZK. Public budgets would lose about 86 billion crowns.

President of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants, Vaclav Starek, said that it is necessary to maintain the business in order for industries to be able to recover as soon as restrictions are released. According to Starek, the state should provide entrepreneurs and businesses with tax relief, wage allowances, and tax breaks in order to start-up tourism, pay wages and contribute to employees.

“It is not only about overcoming the period of validity of the current crisis measures, but also the subsequent period when entrepreneurs will start from scratch and often with losses,” Starek added.

According to Stark, the AHR has offered Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) accommodations for rescue teams and other workers who are helping in the daily fight against coronavirus. Hoteliers are ready to provide facilities for seniors, and many restaurants are already helping provide meals to those in need.

“However, under current restrictions, it is still not possible, for example, to provide accommodation for workers traveling and working in the field, for example, on electrical wiring and maintenance of the state’s basic infrastructure,” said Stárek.

Entrepreneurs will be able to apply for interest-free loans from 10,000 to 15 million CZK with a one-year delay in the COVID II Loan Program. The loans will be provided by commercial banks and will be guaranteed through the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank.

The government also approved the waiver of social security and health insurance contributions for sole proprietors for six months from March to August, up to the minimum advance payments.

They will also forgive the June advance on income tax for sole traders and companies, the second for quarterly payers and the first for semi-annual payers. Short-time work was also approved for coronavirus-impacted companies. The state will pay these workers between 50 and 80 percent of their salaries, which have been impacted due to restrictions on production or services.

At a Monday meeting, the government extended its restrictions until April 1. Restaurants will remain closed, and most shops, hotels and spa facilities may not offer services.

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Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the restrictions on movement may be extended until April 1st if the Covid-19 situation does not improve as the country went into a two-week movement restriction period on March 13th.

The government will discuss on Monday the introduction of a Kurzarbeit program – a short-time working arrangement in which civilian employees agree to or are forced to accept a reduction in working time and pay, usually introduced in times of recession.

Kurzarbeit (roughly translated, “short-time work”) is a German government program first used during the 2008 financial crisis that pays roughly two-thirds of an employee’s salary to a company that would otherwise be forced to resort to layoffs in the face of an economic downturn.

By providing for staff to remain on the job (even at reduced hours and salary) Kurzarbeit benefits both employers and employees. Workers maintain a steady stream of income, while companies avoid losing the skills these workers have acquired and which are likely to be needed once an economic upturn arrives.

The Czech Republic’s tough measures to slow the spread of coronavirus may be relaxed somewhat in three weeks, but the country’s borders are likely to stay shut to most travel for months, the head of the country’s crisis committee said on Sunday.

Schools will be closed at least until the end of May, and borders may be shut for tourist travel for many months, or even a year or two depending on circumstances, added Prymula.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic reached 1120 on Sunday, after an increase of 158 cases on Saturday.

“Strict quarantine measures will probably last until mid-April. The borders could be closed for months, if not years,” said Roman Prymula to iDnes.

“We are determined to aim at 8,500 (cases), with the limit of 10,000 at which point we want to halt the increase,” Prymula said in a live television debate.

“From this point on, the daily growth in percent should not be as it is now, although we have already managed to lower that a lot. The daily growth should be zero.

“If we manage that, which we expect some time after Easter, we would like to gradually relax the measures, let’s say from mid-April, and return the country to life.”

There were a total of 1,047 confirmed infections in the country as of Sunday morning, with no deaths so far. Nineteen patients are in intensive care.

Traveling can be limited to two years

Both Vojtěch and Prymula agreed that border measures would take a long time. “We cannot afford to have another wave of cases,” the minister said.

According to him, police were instructed to tighten movement measures more. On Monday, the government will consider banning commuters to work in neighboring states.

“We noted that there were cases of coronavirus infection among cross-border workers,” added Vojtěch.

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