“We are now in a situation where we are discussing the supply of respirators, which is a higher degree of protection. We currently have over eight million of them in stock at the Ministry of the Interior. Today (on Monday – editor’s note) we agreed that we would transfer all those reserves to the state’s material reserves and the government, if it decided, all the funds would be distributed, “the minister explained the differences in the current situation.
According to Hamáček, the volume of orders by the end of the year is around twenty million FFP3 respirators. Adding to the eight million that the interior has in stock, this adds up to almost thirty million. The minister assumes that the regions and hospitals still have some supplies.
Will the government protect teachers?
The government expected that in the first batch of distribution there would be one respirator per senior. They will only use them if they are in a risky environment.
On Monday, the government also instructed the Minister of Education, Robert Plaga (ANO), to find out from the mayor of Prague, Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates), whether teachers in the capital would be interested in the supply of respirators. In Prague, the situation with the occurrence of coronavirus is currently the worst, as the only one on the map of districts according to the risk of infection in orange.
The offer of respirators for teachers would go to other regions if they also have an orange traffic light at the so-called traffic light, said Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES). The mushroom said that the city would take advantage of the offer. The municipality began to find out how many respirators it would need.
According to Hamáček, the situation with teachers is different than with seniors. Educators would have to use respirators more often, they consume about one a day. If the government wanted to have them distributed to all teachers, that would be a million respirators a week. “That means we could still use those supplies, but that would be a lot of pressure,” he said.
The basic tool is a veil
“No country in the world has planned and probably does not plan to distribute respirators to citizens. The basic protective aid is a cotton drape, which is the most practical, can be washed, ironed, sterilized. Over time, new products, such as nanotowels, half masks, will pop up. The market is much better today, protective equipment is available, “the minister assured.
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According to Hamáček, the state of emergency is definitely not on the agenda in the current situation, the whole thing is said to be manageable by current measures. The change in the situation would have to be caused only by multiple increases in those infected. “I would personally welcome the Crisis Staff at least as a platform for exchanging information, because the fact that it met once a week in that big plenary and the working group met every day, so of course it allowed us to work more operationally. This is for a longer debate within the government, “said Hamáček.
According to Hamáček, five thousand for seniors is not a fundamental intervention in the budget
The Minister further stated that the government is ready to change the legislation concerning nursing care again in case it would be necessary to close schools again. Hamáček still stands behind the decision that pensioners will receive five thousand crowns, even though it is not yet known how much the state budget will cost in the final pandemic.
“I don’t think five thousand seniors have a major budget impact. Many programs work, only Antivirus has saved a million jobs. As for the super-gross wage, well, I’m ready to lead the debate there. When we announced the agreement with the Prime Minister to abolish the super-gross wage, we said that the solution we were offering would still go through some debate in drawing up next year’s budget. If it turns out that next year will be a budget disaster, then there is certainly room for discussion, “said Hamáček.
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The minister imagines the disaster, for example, in that the Czechia will have one hundred thousand infected and collapsing health care systems in November. In that case, the government is said to be dealing with slightly different things than the super-gross wage.
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