by pomegrante » Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:20 pm
Increase of cases in Czech Republic as well as the rest of Europe
The Czech Republic – with Slovakia – was the first European country to bring in obligatory face-covering last spring as part of its anti-coronavirus lockdown strategy and won international praise for controlling the spread of infection. But case numbers surged after restrictions were lifted almost entirely in late June.
The country of 10.7 million documented a record 3,129 infections in a single day on 17 September following weeks of spiking numbers and currently stands behind France and Spain as the European country with the highest number of cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days. There have now been 49,320 cases and 503 deaths.
Announcing his resignation, Vojtech said he had “nothing to be ashamed of”.
Babiš has sent mixed signals as infection figures have soared, prompting several neighbouring states to impose quarantine requirements. Last week he declared that it was time to stop being afraid of the virus only to say days later that the public needed to treat it seriously. He also told the World Health Organisation to “keep quiet” after it voiced concern about the situation in the Czech Republic.
Roman Prymula, the ex-deputy health minister of the Czech Republic, now commissioner for science and research in healthcare, who is an epidemiologist, called at the weekend for a renewed state of emergency, warning that there could be up to 8,000 infections a day without further restrictions.
The government’s central crisis unit on the pandemic was due to meet for the first time in months on Monday. But Jan Hamáček, the interior minister, told journalists that a state of emergency would not be declared in the immediate future.