After an extraordinary afternoon meeting of the government, government officials presented new measures to help slow down the spread of coronavirus infection. The government was scheduled to meet on Friday, but after Wednesday’s record 5,335 new infections, it moved the talks to Thursday. “We come across the fact that the measures are not applied nationwide, we have a large segment of the population that is negative about them. The main thing is that we have a high and rapidly growing number of people who require intensive care. The reproduction number rose above 1.2. We must reduce people’s contacts, “explained the Minister of Health Roman Prymula (for YES), why the government took new measures so quickly.
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Schools
From Monday, all universities in the Czech Republic will close for full-time teaching. The only exception will be practical teaching in medical and healthcare disciplines. Likewise, students from all high schools will stay at home for the next 14 days. Until now, the closure of secondary schools has been handled according to the so-called traffic light, so that in some less affected regions schools have remained open. Now you close too. An exception remains for practical teaching.
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Full-time teaching will continue in the first stages of primary schools. For others, the government will introduce alternating teaching. This means that, for example, in a school that has two classes in one grade, one week of full-time instruction will be Class A, while Class B will learn from home. They’ll trade it next week.
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“This divides the secondary school pupils into two halves, which should have an epidemiological effect,” explained the Minister of Education Robert Plaga (for YES).
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There is also a general closure of basic art schools, with the exception of individual teaching at the level of one student – one teacher. The functioning of school clubs is also limited.
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Minister Plaga also announced days off on Monday and Tuesday, October 26 and 27. “Think of them as days of fighting the covid, as days that we must use to be able to deal with the situation,” he said.
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Restaurant
Restaurants, pubs and bars will only be open until 8 pm from Friday, and only four people will be able to sit at the table instead of the current six. Other previously set rules remain. “It should lead to a reduction in contacts,” Prymula said.
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Shopping centers
According to government officials, large shopping centers are one of the risky places, especially for young people who like to spend their free time there. Roman Prymula was afraid that with further restrictions on full-time teaching in schools, it could drag children to the dining corners of shopping centers. Therefore, from Friday, they will order operators to turn off public wifi networks and restrict the operation of so-called food courts, ie floors with mostly fast food restaurants, which are popular among schoolchildren. “Only two people will be able to sit at the table,” Prymula said.
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Sport
The Ministry of Health will let the sports competitions run out by Monday, and from Monday it will cancel all professional and amateur sports activities. As of Friday, October 9, all indoor sports grounds will be closed. Outdoor sports are allowed in a maximum of 20 people. “So it is possible to play football or tennis outside,” said Minister Prymula. Exceptions will be international matches, without spectators and with other restrictions.
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Government regulations also close fitness centers, indoor pools and gyms from midnight from Thursday to Friday. The reason is again close contacts between people.
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Culture and leisure
From Monday, virtually all cultural events will be closed and canceled. They will close cinemas, theaters and zoos from Friday. “There is a huge accumulation of people over the weekends, and we really need to reduce the number of people who meet outside the family,” Prymula explained.
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Visits to museums, galleries, exhibitions, castles and chateaux and similar historical and cultural objects are also prohibited. Observatories and planetariums will also have to be closed until Sunday, October 25. Prymula stated this on Twitter in the list of measures. On Czech Television, Prymula said that only libraries and bookstores would remain open from the cultural field.
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On the contrary, the measures for weddings do not change, their conditions remain as announced by the Ministry of Health a week ago, ie the limit on the number of 30 wedding guests from Monday 19 October.
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Worship services
Attendance at religious events will be limited to a maximum of ten people from Monday to two weeks. Since the beginning of this week, the limit has been introduced as a measure against the spread of coronavirus 100 people.
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Authorities
The operation of the offices is moving to the regime in which they were this spring, ie that they will be open only two days a week for five hours.
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Sanitary facilities
For the next 14 days, visits to health and social care facilities will also be banned, although most hospitals or retirement homes have already banned visits in recent days at their own discretion.
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Note: In the text, we have specified the dates of the closure of the ZOO and indoor sports grounds as of Friday, October 9, as published and specified by the Minister of Health Roman Prymula on his Twitter account on Thursday evening.
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