Coronavirus update, Jan. 28, 2021: Czech govt. will meet today to decide over tougher lockdown measures

The Czech government will meet Thursday afternoon to further debate tightening the anti-coronavirus measures, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said Wednesday evening following a special meeting of the cabinet. He said despite previous discussions to the contrary there is currently no room for lockdown relaxation, rather stricter enforcement and/or tightening of the existing measures.

The news comes in light of this week's rise in coronavirus numbers.

With 9,144 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the Czech Republic saw an increase of 2,200 higher compared to Monday but by about 500 fewer compared to the previous Tuesday. The number of hospitalized COVID patients has fallen by 400 since the previous Tuesday to 6,043; of that number almost 1,000 are in serious condition.

Babiš said the country could not afford to relax the measures, but added that he could not say what the proposals for the lockdown tightening would entail.

Lawmakers are being equally cautious about returning students to the classroom. During the government meeting Wednesday Minister of Education Robert Plaga tweeted that schools will not reopen from Feb. 1 but continue remote learning due to the current epidemic situation.

Plaga hopes the Health Ministry manages to provide a blanket school testing scheme, for instance "gargle and spit" saliva tests for COVID-19, he said. This might enable more pupils to go back to school, Plaga added, noting that the logistics of testing will be crucial. According to experts, the final-year students most urgently need to return to school.

The PES epidemic index of system remains at 68 points for the third day in a row. The Czech Republic has remained at the fourth degree out of five risk levels for 15 days, despite the fact that fifth-level lockdown measures have been in force. Of the four indicators used to calculate the score, only the reproductive number has increased slightly to date, rising to 0.96, according to morning data from the Ministry of Health's website.

Source: onemocneni-aktualne.mzcr.cz/covid-19