The number of 1,050 positive tests on a working day corresponds to the values from mid-September last year. Compared to Thursday, there were less than two hundred of them, compared to last Friday, there were 588 fewer new cases.
The reproduction number indicating how many other people infected one positive test dropped from 0.77 to 0.73. It is its lowest value in the last almost four weeks. Below the break value of one, the reproduction number is kept on the thirty-first day in a row. The lower the number below one, the slower the epidemic spreads.
In addition to the epidemic, however, the pace of vaccination also slowed down on Friday. 79,000 people received the vaccine a day, compared to less than 89,000 on Thursday. Thursday is regularly the day of the week when most people receive the vaccine, but this time the number of vaccinated people has decreased even compared to the previous Friday, when 84,000 people were vaccinated. In total, three million three million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine since December. 1.1 million people have completed vaccination, 22,000 have received a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the others have two doses.
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There are now 1,500 patients with covid-19 in the hospitals, and 293 of them are in severe condition. Compared to daily increases in the number of people infected, the number of hospitalizations decreases more slowly. More than 1,500 patients were admitted to the hospital on October 6, the day before, more than 300 people were in severe condition for the first time. The worst situation occurred in hospitals in mid-March, when there were over nine thousand people with covid-19, about a fifth of whom needed intensive care.
The Czech Republic has less than 75 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants per week
There have been 74 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week. This value thus fell below 75 on a national scale, which was a government condition for the introduction of a fourth dismantling package containing restaurant gardens, theaters and outdoor concerts or even the partial opening of hotels.
The rate of infection varies considerably across the republic in individual districts. There are still areas where more than a hundred infected people per hundred thousand people have been added in a week. The worst is now Opava with 165 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants in seven days and Český Krumlov with 153 infected per hundred thousand inhabitants at the same time. The entire Moravian-Silesian (111) and Zlín regions (114) still remain above the 100. The best situation is in the Karlovy Vary region with 29 infected per hundred thousand inhabitants per week.
The first weekend after the stores open equals the queue
In connection with the declining number of new cases, the Czech government is easing the restrictions it has announced in recent months. In the past week, the obligation to wear respirators outside has eased and, above all, shops have opened. On the first weekend, when it is mostly open, this was reflected in the formation of queues – not only in shops, but often also on driveways and parking lots.
In large cities, there are some furniture department stores on the capacity limit. In shopping malls, people stand in queues, mainly at fashion stores for young people. “Attendance is roughly at the same level as in recent days, when it was 60 percent higher than the week before the disintegration, which is within our expectations,” said Martina Tlustá, marketing manager of the shopping center in Vysočany, Prague.
According to its manager Jakub Horák, three times more customers came to the Jihlava furniture store than on working days. According to him, people can see the desire to shop. On Saturday they came for small things and for large pieces of furniture.
The director of the Prague outlet, Lenka Čapková, pointed out that already in the working week “it was the highest number of visitors in fourteen years”. In some stores, they compare sales to the pre-Christmas period.
However, a number of measures still apply to purchases. In stores, there can be a maximum of one customer per 15 square meters, respirators or nanotowels and hand disinfection are mandatory before entering the store. It is not possible to sit and relax in the shopping centers, children’s corners or cinemas are closed, and catering facilities can only sell snacks with them.
The gardens will open on Monday, and the restaurateurs will not check the tests
From next Monday, the restaurant gardens will start operating. On Friday, the cabinet approved the exact rules for them. It follows that although guests will be required to undergo a coronavirus test before visiting a restaurant, restaurateurs will not have to check that they have actually complied with this obligation.
Restaurant operators, on the other hand, will have to ensure that there is a distance of at least 1.5 meters between the tables, and the same distance will have to be from the surroundings, such as the sidewalk. A maximum of four people may sit at a table, unless they are members of the same household.
Although the government has already approved in advance the partial implementation of some of the measures listed in the fourth package, its implementation is not complete. Hotels will still have to wait a week. However, compared to the originally planned quarter capacity, they could open without restrictions from 24 May.
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