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The Czech Republic recorded a record number of coronavirus infections on Sunday for the third day in a row, with 1,541 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, according to Agerpres.
Sunday is the fifth consecutive day that the threshold of 1,000 new infections has been exceeded in the Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million inhabitants, which has faced an increasingly accelerating epidemic in recent weeks.
In terms of population, this means 94 cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Only Spain and France recorded larger increases during this period.
As of Saturday, of a total of 35,401 cases of infection, 60% of the patients had recovered and 453 had died.
The Czech Republic was one of the first countries in Europe where the use of masks was required in most public places, schools, shops and closed borders.
However, the Czech Republic was quick to relax these measures in the summer, after a small number of deaths compared to many other European countries.
Last week, the rules for wearing masks to counteract the spread of the virus were tightened.
The Czech Republic reported the 10,000th case of infection in mid-June alone, on the 20th to mid-August, after which it quickly surpassed 30,000 last week.
The move prompted neighboring Germany to announce on Wednesday that people returning from Prague will have to test negative for the coronavirus or remain in quarantine for two weeks.
As for the number of hospitalized, the Czech government said it remains below the peak of more than 400 in the first months of the epidemic, although the numbers are growing rapidly. On Friday, 297 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, compared with 172 at the beginning of the month.
Editing: Cristina Iancu
