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Due to the dramatically high number of coronavirus infections, the Czech Republic has once again declared a state of emergency. It will be in effect for 14 days starting tomorrow, the minority government under Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced today. This is in response to a request from the representatives of all 14 administrative regions, including the capital Prague.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than one million confirmed CoV infections and 18,143 deaths in the country of just over ten million people. According to the latest figures from the EU health agency ECDC, there were around 915 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the Czech Republic within 14 days.
The CoV-related state of emergency was supposed to expire. With its decision, the government is going against the will of parliament, which on Thursday rejected an extension of the state of emergency that has been in effect since October. The decision could end up before the Constitutional Court. The president of the Senate, Milos Vystrcil, had explicitly warned against “undermining the control activity of the parliament.”
Numerous measures are linked to the current state of emergency, such as curbs on the use of public transport. Stores for non-daily needs, restaurants and hotels are closed. Foreigners are subject to a widespread ban on entry. Three CoV hotspots in the west and north of the Czech Republic are isolated from the outside world.
Authorities are concerned about the more contagious virus variant B.1.17. Germany has declared the Czech Republic a “virus variant area” and temporarily reintroduced stationary border controls.
- source: orf.at/picture:pixabay.com
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