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The sun shone to the beat of the crowd as thousands of Prague residents set up a 500-meter long table that spanned directly over the classic Charles Bridge. July 2 became a public holiday. For the first time in months, crowds of 1,000 were allowed and now Czechs were gathering to say a “symbolic goodbye” to the corona virus.
From time to time, the Czech Republic had reason to be satisfied. With strong restrictions at an early stage, the infection had been limited and by that time almost 350 people had died from covid-19 in the country of 10 million inhabitants.
Already on March 12, the Czech Republic declared a state of emergency, schools, restaurants and much of the rest of society were closed. A week later, it became the first European country to introduce mandatory outdoor mouth protection, with heavy fines for those who did not cover their mouth and nose. The decisions were made despite the fact that they had not yet registered their first death in covid-19.
But as large parts In the world, the easing of restrictions has led to an increase in social contagion, and also in the Czech Republic. After the curve pointed ever higher and criticism of the crown’s handling increased day by day, Health Minister Adam Vojtech decided to step down on September 21. His surrogate, epidemiologist Roman Prymula, recently called the infection situation in the country one of the worst in the world in terms of the number of new cases.
The day after the change of minister, Prime Minister Andrei Babis declared in a televised speech that his government had made a mistake by lifting restrictions prematurely.
– I even got carried away by the summer and the atmosphere that reigned. It was a mistake I don’t want to make again, said the billionaire suspected of corruption.
Three months after the farewell party on the Charles Bridge, the Czechs can claim that the virus did not say goodbye. On October 5, a 30-day state of emergency was again introduced in the country and today the Czech Republic has the highest number of new corona cases in Europe per capita with more than 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. On Friday, the country reported 8,618 new cases of infection, more than 3,000 more than the previous peak, according to the European Infection Control Agency Ecdc.
The last week The number of reported deaths has also risen to new levels with as many as 40 new deaths per day, and the big question now is whether healthcare will be able to cope with the increased pressure. In Prague, where infection in the country is at its worst, only 10 percent of intensive care units were empty last week.
– The situation is serious. Experts say that if we exceed 120,000 new corona cases per month, we will start to run out of hospital beds. We do our best to avoid this, Andrej Babis said.
The Prime Minister points out that he does not rule out a new closure of the company if the new guidelines are not followed. A total of 109,000 infected with covid-19 have been reported in the Czech Republic with just over 900 deaths.
