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Original title: The second wave of the epidemic coincides with the resumption of school and work in the Czech Republic to restart the state of emergency
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the Czech Republic adopted a drive-thru voting center for local elections. On September 30, in Prague, Czech Republic, voters headed to a polling station to vote. Xinhua News Agency
After entering October, the number of new confirmed cases in many European countries has continued to rise. The total number of confirmed cases has exceeded 6.16 million and the daily number of new patients exceeds 100,000. Among them, countries with more than 300 new confirmed cases per million inhabitants include the Czech Republic and Spain. According to data from the Czech Ministry of Health, since October 7, the number of new confirmed cases exceeded 5,300 for several consecutive days. On October 9, the number of new confirmed cases in the Czech Republic reached a record 8,618.
Czech Health Minister Roman Primula claimed that, unlike the first wave of the epidemic in the spring, this infection is a sexually transmitted outbreak. The continuous increase in new cases has put enormous pressure on medical institutions. On the one hand, it is necessary to hospitalize more patients. In order to improve the hospital’s capacity to reserve beds, the government is considering transferring mildly ill patients to hotels with a high vacancy rate for placement. On the other hand, medical personnel have been seriously infected and face staff shortages. So far, there are about 800 doctors and about 1,500 nurses have been infected. Primula called on citizens with experience in medical education to help the government fight the new coronavirus. He stressed that the most important task today is to “level” the infection curve, that is, to re-take strict control measures to reduce the number of new cases per day. October 10-25 is the key. If the control cannot be completed in a short time Mission, it is very likely that it will be necessary to open a joint ward (similar to the refuge hospitals in China) to cope with the large-scale hospitalization of patients.
Part of the reason for the recurrence of the epidemic is that, although the development of the epidemic has not been completely controlled, the government must relax its prevention and control policies in the face of public opinion and the economic situation. After the first cancellation of the mandatory wearing of masks in late May, many people have relaxed their vigilance against the epidemic in their daily lives. Although health experts have repeatedly reminded the public to pay attention to food hygiene, herd infections frequently occur due to shared meals. At present, the Czech economy is unable to withstand large-scale shutdowns again. How to control the epidemic while ensuring normal production and order of life is a great challenge for the Czech government. Prime Minister Babis also admitted on social media many times that in June we felt that the virus was already gone and that it could be a mistake to quickly relax measures against the spread of the new coronavirus.
The head of the epidemic prevention working group of the new crown of the Czech Ministry of Health and an epidemiologist Klebeck recently said that the situation of the second wave of epidemics is not optimistic. As the seasons change, rain and weather increases, the temperature difference between day and night in some areas increases. Overlapped with the epidemic season of respiratory diseases, it will be more difficult to control.
In the second wave of the epidemic, the infected population has changed significantly. According to statistics from the Czech Ministry of Health, compared to the first outbreak of the new corona pneumonia epidemic in the spring, the infected population of the second large-scale epidemic has undergone great changes, and the infected people are significantly younger . Statistics show that in the spring the confirmed population is mainly between 41 and 50 years old; confirmed cases from August to October are mainly young people and children under 30 years of age. Health experts said this contrast change is closely related to whether the government has taken strict preventive measures. In the spring, the government declared a state of emergency. Most institutions, including schools, were completely closed. Young people were unable to participate in social activities, greatly reducing the risk of infection. With the resumption of primary and secondary schools in September and the resumption of work on summer holidays abroad, the virus has spread further among students and workers.
In response to the large-scale spread of the epidemic again, the Czech government once again announced a 30-day “state of emergency” starting on October 5. The main measures include: First, re-emphasizing the mandatory use of masks in specific areas and maintaining adequate space in public places. And wash your hands and disinfect your hands after touching public goods. The second is to strictly restrict indoor gathering activities. For example, restaurants must control each table with less than 4 people and close at 8 pm, cancel all indoor sporting activities except international events, close cultural venues such as theaters and cinemas, and close public wireless networks in centers commercial. Reduce people’s stay and so on. The third is to restart distance learning. Full-time teaching in high schools and universities with a large number of people will be completely switched to remote learning, while elementary schools with a small number of people will adopt some distance learning.
In an interview with the media, Babis said that the government does not want to take extreme measures of “regional quarantine” because the quarantine measures against the first wave of the spring epidemic cost the Czech Republic 200 billion crowns (about 58.6 billion yuan). But if people no longer realize the importance of wearing masks and strictly complying with epidemic prevention measures, the government will have to “shut everything down.”
As the new corona pneumonia epidemic continues to sweep across Europe, the Czech Republic, as one of the first countries in the European Union to take emergency measures and declare a “state of emergency”, has achieved good results in preventing the spring pandemic with low infection and mortality rates, but Downward pressure on the economy continues to mount. The “macroeconomic forecast” issued by the Czech Finance Ministry in September showed that the Czech economy was fundamentally affected by the new corona pneumonia epidemic. To prevent the spread of the disease, mandatory measures that began in March caused a severe economic recession in the first half of the year. Long-term business closings and production closures led to a 10.7% drop in the first quarter for the Czech Republic compared to the same period last year. Even with the resumption of work and production since May, the Czech economy contracted in the second quarter to a record, 8.4% less than in the first quarter. The report predicts that the annual economic decline will reach 6.6%, the public deficit will represent 6.4% of GDP and the debt will grow to 39.4% of GDP. Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerova said in an interview that the epidemic has seriously affected economic development, especially the real estate market and the automobile industry. The Czech Republic is not expected to return to the GDP level of 2019 until 2023.
(This newspaper, Prague, October 11, this newspaper’s Prague correspondent Zhong Weikai)
