Coronavirus update, June 1, 2021: Certificates of vaccination, test, or Covid can now be downloaded

Covid certificates may be downloaded online

It will be possible for Czech citizens to download the certificates on negative Covid tests, previous infection, and vaccination including the first dose as of June 1, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch told journalists after Monday’s government meeting. The certificates will be available at the special portal of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS), Vojtěch said.

To download the certificate, you need to enter a family number (rodné číslo) and a Czech state ID number, or have a national e-identity. Czechs may present them when traveling to Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia since the Czech Republic has negotiated a bilateral pact with each of them. The individual countries are now setting their own rules for the time of the validity of a negative test and the required interval after the first or second Covid vaccine dose, which may differ in doses from various manufacturers.

Few new details for vaccination for people with commercial insurance

The Ministry of Health promised that the vaccination registration system will finally be open to foreigners without public insurance from the beginning o fJune, but so far has not added specific information on how to register. This applies to tens of thousands of foreigners who live in the Czech Republic for a long time but cannot get public insurance because they are from countries outside the EU.

In Prague, where the concentration of these people is greatest, there should be more such places. Insurance companies are willing to accommodate foreigners with commercial insurance. "Insurance companies are ready to pay for both the vaccine itself and the performance of vaccinations," Veronika Nová, a spokeswoman for the Czech Insurance Association, told Právo.

Covid vaccine donated by Serbia arrives in Prague

Czech military aircraft with over 100,620 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine donated by Serbia arrived at a Kbely air base in Prague at around 2:45 pm yesterday. Soldiers then put the vaccines in an ambulance car that drove them away in fridge-boxes. The Health Ministry approved the use of the vaccines in the Czech Republic later today. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš informed about the transport of the gift on Twitter. He spoke about the prepared gift after the recent visit to Prague by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. Babiš said the vaccines would be first sent to the General Teaching Hospital in Prague.

Govt. approves draft to allow for EU Covid passports

The government has approved the first draft amendment to the public health protection law thanks to which the issuance of European Covid passports may be possible. The government has sent another amendment to the public health protection law to the Chamber of Deputies. The lawmakers refused to debate the previous draft in the state of legislative emergency as they had reservations about it

The collective European framework for the issuance and verification of the certificates about vaccination, testing and past infection called Digital Green Certificate is to be issued by the EU as a directive. The European certificate that is to facilitate traveling between the EU member states is supposed to be implemented as of July. Vojtěch said the Czech Republic needed the legislation in order to make it clear where people could gain the certificate and how the identity in state registers would be checked. "The goal is that the system should start working in Europe as of July 1, but we are also getting ready for a potential delay, negotiating with the countries where Czechs like to spend their holidays," Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek said.

Govt.: Antivirus program being reduced

In June, companies will be able to receive from the Antivirus program only contributions for part of the compensation for people in quarantine, tha is contribution A. Payment of wages in closed operations or when the demand is reduced ended May 31. Thus, the A + and B contributions will cease to be provided, the government decided at its Monday meeting. Trade unions and employers have demanded an extension of Antivirus until the end of June. The antivirus program provides wage and compensation contributions to companies that have been affected by the imposed restrictions against coronavirus. Expenditures amount to CZK 43.2 billion from March 12 last year, from the announcement of the first state of emergency to the present day. Four-fifths are paid by the EU and one-fifth by the state. Some 74,000 companies received support for more than a million employees.

Malls can reopen children’s corners

Children’s corners in malls can reopen at 50 percent capacity, Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček said on Twitter. They must keep a record of all customers for 30 days in case they need to be tracked. Shopping centers are gradually becoming fully operational. People can use the dining areas again. However, relaxation zones are still prohibited.

More students can sing

The maximum number of pupils singing in schools was increased to 30 from the previous limit of six. Also regarding schools, an exemption was approved allowing students to take off face protection for photographs organized by a school or school facility.

South African, Indian coronavirus mutations appear

A total of 53 cases of the South African coronavirus mutation, 13 cases of the Indian mutation and nine cases of the Southeastern Asia variant were confirmed in the Czech Republic by May 21, the National Health Institute (SZÚ) said on its website. So far, over 2,700 positive samples have been analyses in detail by the genome sequencing. The British mutation is still predominant, the SZÚ said. The government has set aside CZK 161 million for the sequencing of the samples with the target of sequencing about 4,000 samples a month.

May saw an average of 20.7 deaths per day

There were 514 newly confirmed Covid-19 cases on Monday, which is about one fourth fewer than a week ago, according to Health Ministry data. More than 1.66 million people have caught coronavirus in the Czech Republic since the epidemic outbreak in March 2020, 97.5 percent of them have recovered and 30,119 have died. In May, 28,813 people tested positive for coronavirus, which is 930 new cases per day on average. In April, about 93,200 people tested positive or 3,106 per day. According to the preliminary data, 641 people with Covid died in May, or 20.7 deaths per day on average. In April, there were 2,534 coronavirus deaths or 84.5 deaths per day on average. The reproduction number R, which shows how many people catch COVID-19 on average from one infected person, is roughly 0.8 today It has stayed below the breaking point of 1 since April 14, which is 48 days in a row.

Latest Covid-19 data from the Czech Ministry of Health (June 1, 2021)

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