praha Archives – Prague Morning

Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) announced today to have resumed the operation of the cable car in the Prague Zoo.

At the same time, it will increase the operation of bus line No. 112, leading to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens. However, the cable car to Petřín will reopen on 11 May.

In connection with the gradual increase in the number of public transport passengers, ticket inspectors came back to work on Monday, April 27.

DPP has so far partially deployed them for other jobs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as filling and distributing disinfectants in the metro stations.

The Museum of Public Transport plans to reopen on Saturday, June 13, while the historic tram line 41 should resume on Saturday, May 16.

From today, shops the size of up to 2,500 square meters that have their own entrance and are not located in large shopping centers are free to reopen, as are driving schools, gyms and fitness centers, although without the use of showers and changing rooms.

The number of coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic reached 7404 on Monday morning, up by 52 on Sunday, the smallest daily increase since March 14.

Over 2,500 people have recovered, 221 people have died.

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 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.

Passengers in Prague’s metro can now use the LTE mobile network on line C from Roztyly to Nádraží Holešovice. Until now, the signal only reached the Museum station. The section between Bořislavka and Motol Hospital on line A is also covered. In total, 16 signal LTE services in the metro station and adjacent tunnels still need to be covered at the end of 2021.

In the upcoming weeks, operators will continue to fine-tune the technology in the newly covered section. Customers can, therefore, use the latest generation mobile services in the Bořislavka – Motol Hospital (4 stations) on line A, in the Museum – Roztyly (8 stations) on line C and from today also in the Muzeum – Nádraží Holešovice on line C (4 stations).

By the end of March 2020, the 4G signal will also be available for passengers in sixteen stations at the centre of Prague: six stations on line A between the Muzeum and Dejvická and ten on line B between the Smíchov train station and Palmovka. Passengers will be able to use the high-speed LTE network in a total of 32 metro stations and adjacent tunnels in spring, which is more than half of the entire extent of Prague metro.

Also, 29 stations and adjacent tunnels will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to cover the LTE networks throughout the entire metro area. The original plan predicts the coverage of the 4G signal in all sections by the end of 2022 at the latest. If work continues on the same path as before, passengers will be able to use the signal in all sections of the subway at the end of 2021. “We live online, and the signal in the Prague metro was supposed to be ordinary for a long time. Unfortunately, Prague fell asleep in this field for several years,” said Petr Witowski, General Manager of Prague Transport Company (DPP).

The upcoming new line D could also be covered from the beginning. “The consortium of operators has successfully tested the service on routes A, B, and C, and we are ready to use the experience we’ve achieved in covering line D. We would like to get involved to make the construction really useful,” said Lubor Žatko from T-Mobile and Slovak Telekom on behalf of the Consortium of Operators.

Last April, DPP (Prague Transport Company) approved a contract with a consortium of operators for 20 years; during the first ten years, operators will pay CZK 120 million to DPP. Initially, the operators talked about covering the entire existing metro network by the end of 2022. They now count on this date happening one year earlier.

By Nico Fontana – Anglo American University

Anyone who is bored with the monotony of most popular electronic music will find solace in the Lunchmeat Festival, a diverse landscape of visual/sound artists and electronic musician/composers. Spanning almost a week of programming, the festival began on October 30^th at the Planetarium. However, the main program commences Thursday, Oct. 3^rd for three full evenings of experimental electronics, and all in celebration of the festival’s 10^th anniversary.

Deep beneath the National Gallery’s Trade Fair Palace, the Lunchmeat Festival is also appropriately held in the Studio of Heroes, a massive, cavernous industrial space with rusting and corroded metal pipes contrasting with its modern-designed seating like an amphitheatre, while the cinema-quality projections fully bring to life the entirety of the main concert hall.

One of the most anticipated avant-garde artists this year are Lotic, from the USA, but now based in Berlin performing “Endless Power” with music from their new album “Power” in collaboration with the visual artist Emmanuel Briad. Lotic’s album was made during a period of homelessness in Berlin, so it is a deeply personal and heartfelt portrayal of a period of volatility and instability with the issues of gender and racial discrimination as significant themes reflected in intimate or pained and sparse vocals and dark cacophonies of tribalistic drums and violins.

Another significant experimental artist in electronica is the duo Lakker, who will be performing their newest album “Epoca” on the closing evening. Lakker is formed by the techno and experimental artist Eomac with the composer Arad offering a particularly unique almagamation of styles and influences forming highly complex and danceable tribal rhythms with progressively complex melodies taking inspiration from folk and classical music. Their use of physical instrumentation also gives the music a certain scale and shining grandiosity.

Catarina Barbieri, an Italian composer, who makes astute and hyper-complex use of synthesizers and sequencers will perform “Time-Blind” alongside the multimedia artist Ruben Spini. Barbieri is one of the artists in the festival most loved and acclaimed by critics. The complexities of her melodies create a synthetic atmosphere, which mesmerize and capture the attention of listeners in an almost meditative way, and far from the sonically chaotic others.

Those who are less interested in experimental electronica will rejoice at some of the more conventional DJs on the program including LSDXOXO with his chaotic footwork and drum & bass set. This New York DJ/producer has gained mainstream notoriety following his Boiler Room performance. Another household name on the techno scene is the Swedish DJ and artist Varg, and the producer HDMIRROR from South Africa will bring his rave, dance and gabber influenced auditory assault. Other techno sets by artists including No Idols, Barely Legal, and Valoa will surely be a delight to the less musically masochistic listeners in the audience.

With such a multitude of artists from almost every continent of the world, the Lunchmeat Festival will once again showcase the potential that visual accompaniment to audio can have in terms of capturing attention, and immersing the audience in performances. Come with an open mind, and you will be rewarded generously by the experimentation that this festival has to offer.

For more information see the website