Coronavirus update, July 23, 2021: Self-payers can now get a single-shot vaccine at Prague's main station

Self-payers can get single-shot vaccine at Hlavní nádraží

Self-payers can now get vaccinated at the walk-in center at Prague's main railway station Hlavní nádraží with the single-dose Janssen vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. The shot will cost CZK 579, and must be paid cashless, Bulovka University Hospital announced on Twitter. No reservations are necessary.  The site is open from 7 am to 7 pm to people 18 and over.

Bulovka Hospital offers walk-in vaccination to Sunday

Without prior registration, people can be vaccinated against Covid-19 also at the Bulovka University Hospital in Prague. The hospital offers this option until Sunday and has set aside 100 vacancies for the vaccination center on its premises for each day. The option is also available to self-payers for CZK 810 per shot, payable only cashless.

PM: Covid vaccination won't be mandatory under current govt.

Covid vaccination will not be mandatory under the current Czech government, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said during his visit of the hospital in Náchod in the Hradec Kraálové region. Health Minister Adam Vojtěch said he shared this view. To be clear, no vaccination, be it of the public or health professionals, will be ever made compulsory under this government, Babiš stressed. He added this was to be debated by the next government. He said he was of the view that mandatory inoculation against Covid-19 is not necessary and the government was rather trying to convince people to get vaccinated. Babiš also said it was necessary to make the Covid vaccination as available as possible, lift the barriers and deploy mobile vaccination teams. The introduction of mandatory Covid vaccination is quite a significant step that is likely to require a change in the public health protection law, Vojtěch said, adding that he does not consider it a current topic. Simultaneously, he did not rule out that this obligation might arise in the future.

Over half of EU fully vaccinated

The population of the European Union with completed Covid-19 vaccination has reached 200 million. According to Dana Spinant, a spokeswoman for the European Commission. She added that more than half of the Union's adult population is fully vaccinated.

the number, though, is short of the EU target of 70 percent vaccinated in the summer. In the EU, people can get two-dose vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, or a single-dose Janssen vaccine. Just over 440 million doses have been given in the block since the start of the vaccination campaign.

Czech Olympic Committee to investigate Covid on plane to Tokyo

Czech Olympic Committee (COV) President Jiří Kejval and Vice President Filip Šuman will investigate the circumstances aboard the special Olympic plane on which Czechs who were then tested positive for Covid-19 flew to Tokyo on Friday, the CVO announced. However, National Sports Agency (NSA) head Filip Neusser disagrees which this procedure and he has agreed with Heath Minister Adam Vojtěch that his ministry's commission headed by experts from the public health office will investigate the Covid scandal in the Czech Olympic team. Neusser told ČTK. He said that the Czech Olympic team's trip to Tokyo was covered from public finances. So far, six members of the Czech Olympic team, including four athletes who were aboard this plane to Tokyo have tested positive, the first one being doctor Vlastimil Voráček, who was not vaccinated against the virus. A test revealed his infection at the Tokyo airport already.

Daily number of vaccinations decreasing

The number of new Covid cases reported for Thursday was 197, down slightly from the previous week’s 226. The index number of new cases per 100,000 people remained at 14, and the reproduction number R dropped slightly to 0.93 from 0.97. It has been below the break-even point of 1.0 for five days. The number of new vaccinations was at 74,419, fewer than last week’s 88,398 and far under the target of 100,000 per day. The vast majority has been second shots, with new vaccinations or single-dose shots making up less than one-quarter. For Prague, where the Covid situation is the worst in the country, the index number dropped to 38 from 39 the previous day. The R number fell to 0.89 from 0.97. 

Latest Covid-19 data from the Czech Ministry of Health (July 23, 2021)

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