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Wages will raise the amount of sick pay to a Saxon percentage in March and April in the Czech Republic, the Czech government decided on Monday evening.
Labor and Social Welfare Minister Jana Malácová said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting:
The government also aims to encourage people infected with the coronavirus and those who come in contact with them to stay home and self-quarantine.
So far, employees have received 60 percent of their earnings for their illness. Therefore, many, if their condition was not serious, also tried to get sick to work to avoid a drop in their income.
The government measure will be discussed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday and the Senate on Wednesday, and it is expected to be approved by both bodies and take effect immediately after the head of state signs it.
However, companies with more than 250 employees will need to undergo regular coronavirus testing starting Wednesday. This measure was originally planned by the government as of Friday, but given the deterioration of the epidemic situation, its entry into force was brought forward two days. Starting Friday, the tests will also be mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees.
Work on the development of a Czech coronavirus vaccine will also be renewed by government decision. These were closed last summer as vaccine development was ahead of several foreign companies. Nonetheless, the government now deemed the investigation worth pursuing.
A year ago, in the Czech Republic, an outbreak of the coronavirus broke out in early March last year, with more than 20,500 victims on Monday. The daily average of deaths is more than 150, and on the last day the number of deaths was less than one hundred in mid-December. The current number of confirmed infections is about 150,000.
Czech hospitals remain extremely overloaded. More than 7,000 people were treated in hospitals on Monday, more than 1,500 of whom were classified as serious by doctors. Of the covidos free hospital beds, only 170 are currently free, which is 14 percent of all specialty beds. The Czech government has turned to neighboring Germany and Poland for help in addressing the dire situation.
The vaccination campaign continues. In the Czech Republic, more than 650,000 people had already been vaccinated with a coronavirus vaccine as of Monday, and some 250,000 had also received a second dose.
(MTI)
Cover image source: MTI / Krizsán Csaba
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