Coronavirus update, July 26, 2021: 10 millionth vaccine dose to be administered in the Czech Republic today

The 10 millionth dose of coronavirus vaccine is expected to be given out this morning. The total for Sunday was 9,996,070, just 3,930 short. Only 26,705 doses were given out on Sunday, the lowest daily amount since April. Of the doses given out Sunday, some 21,354 were second doses or the single-shot vaccine, completing vaccination. So far 8,203,769 or 82 percent of the doses administered have been Pfizer/BioNTech, 838,259 or 8.4 percent have been Moderna, 833,504 or 8.3 percent have been AstraZeneca, and 120,538 or 1.2 percent have been the singe-shot Janssen vaccine. Vaccination against coronavirus began in the Czech Republic last year on Dec. 27, 2020. The Czech Republic is slightly behind the EU average in vaccination. Some 4,596,777 people or 42.5 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated. The European Union average is 45.7 percent. The Czech Republic is in 18th place in the EU, while Malta is in first with almost 83 percent of the population was fully vaccinated. In second place is Hungary with 55.5 percent vaccinated and then Spain, where over 54 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

The government will discuss a plan to donate or sell coronavirus vaccines abroad on Monday, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on his social media. Slovakia is likely to take 1 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech from the Czech quota instead of the Czech Republic and pay for them. According to Babiš, the Czech Republic should donate a quarter of a million doses to Vietnam, and send 20,000 to Taiwan. Health Minister Adam Vojtěch will submit the proposal to the government. The Czech Republic now has ordered 23.9 million doses for CZK 8.5 billion. Currently, the country has enough vaccines, Babiš said. At the May meeting of the European Council, the leaders of the EU member states agreed to donate 100 million doses of the vaccine to third countries. According to Babiš, the Czech Republic is to donate 2.39 million doses under this commitment.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš again urged his fellow citizens to get vaccinated and to follow the measures against coronavirus. He stated that a vaccination center would be opened from Tuesday without prior registration in Ústí nad Labem, from Wednesday in Hradec Králové and from Thursday in Olomouc. According to Babiš, the Ústí nad Labem center without registration will be open in the Forum Shopping Center from 10 am to 6 pm, Hradec Králové will be open in the Atrium Shopping Center from 1 pm and the Olomouc center will be open in the Šantovka shopping center from 8 am. He plans to take part in the opening of the Olomouc center.

The Health Ministry plans to spend about CZK 150 million on the analyses of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Czech healthcare system to help find suitable processes if the epidemic continued or returned, according to the documentation for the government released to ČTK. This is why the ministry has proposed that the government extend the program in support of medical applied research in 2020–26. The total spending on the program will not change, only more money should go to the Covid impact analyses in the first years. The projects will be selected in one public tender to be put up this year. According to the proposal authors, the coronavirus epidemic has influenced the operation of many clinical fields and opened a number of issues. It has changed the healthcare personnel's daily routines in the observance of the applied diagnostic and treatment procedures.

Some 23 percent of the Czech population do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19, but the share of those who refuse the inoculation has dropped from 33 percent in February and 26 percent in April, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM polling agency. While 35 percent of those polled want to receive the Covid vaccination, 7 percent still hesitate. The remaining people interviewed had already received at least one jab when polled. Those who refuse to get vaccinated mostly said they mistrust vaccination. Furthermore, some argued that the vaccine has been developed too rapidly and cannot have been properly tested. On top of that, they fear potential adverse effects and long-term health consequences related to inoculation. See our full story here.

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Some 80 percent of the Czech team members at the Tokyo Olympics are vaccinated against Covid-19, which is a similar share as in the U.S. team that is the strongest at the Olympic Games, Tibor Alfoldi, the head of the COV communications service, has told CTK. Out of the Czech athletes, four have tested positive and two from the USA so far. The Czech team in Tokyo includes 115 athletes and some 260 members in total, including the accompanying persons. Alfoldi said he has the exact list of the vaccinated, but this is subject to classification. Covid vaccination is not a condition for the participation in the Tokyo Olympics and this is why all athletes and team members must be tested on a daily basis. Already before the official opening of the games, six members of the Czech Olympic team, including four athletes, all arriving by the same charter flight, tested positive. According to the Olympic rules, all participants have to undergo two PCR tests before the trip to Tokyo, at the latest 96 and 72 hours before the departure, conducted only in the laboratories approved by Japan in the respective country.

The pandemic continues to recede. There were 75 new cases reported for Sunday, down from 116 the previous week. The index number of new cases per 100,000 people stayed at 13, and the reproduction number R dropped to 0.87. It has been below the break-even point of 1.0 for eight days in a row. No deaths were reported for the fourth day in a row. There are 32 people currently hospitalized with three in serious condition, the same as the previous day. A total of 12 deaths have been reported for July. In Prague, the index number is 32, down from 33 on the previous day, and the R number is at 0.78.