Coronavirus update, June 2, 2021: Prague's Thomayer Hospital to launch vaccination for self-payers on July 1

The management of the Thomayer University Hospital in Prague announced on its website that from July 1, 2021, vaccination against Covid-19 will be launched for foreign self-payers who are not insured with a Czech health insurance company. Vaccinations will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 6 pm. To be vaccinated, registration in the central reservation system will be required first. Registration for vaccination will be possible at the earliest starting in mid-June. More details will be specified closer to the launch of registration.

The ÚZIS portal launched June 1 to provide certificates to Czech citizens showing vaccination, testing, or recovery from Covid will be available to foreigners as of June 7, according to a document on the ÚZIS website. Foreigners will need to enter their date of birth, email, and telephone number. The user will then receive an SMS allowing them to access the system. It will also be possible to obtain a certificate on request from the health service provider who performed the vaccination or test. All people will stop receiving an automatic SMS to access a certificate after vaccination on June 7 and will have to use the ÚZIS portal instead.

Central Bohemian vaccination sites want to attract younger people to coronavirus vaccination. Therefore, they are planning a special event Vaccination Night (Noc očkování) or Vaccination Marathon (Očkovací maraton) from June 11 to 12. Teams from participating vaccination centers will not put down their syringes for at least 24 hours. The organizers will strive for registration in the record book for the longest non-stop vaccination through the record certification firm Agentura Dobrý den.

Czech Health insurance companies will increase their payments for PCR tests for Covid-19 without a request from a doctor to CZK 614 crowns after merely one day of a much lower sum being valid, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch tweeted. As of June 1, Czechs are entitled to two PCR tests a month covered by their health insurance without the request. The health insurance companies' payment for the test had been set at CZK 350. Some centers did not offer the service because the payment was almost unable to cover their costs. Till the end of May, the health insurance companies covered about CZK 1,131 to the sampling centers for a PCR test.

The Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) ruled that the anti-epidemic measures that ordered restaurants to remain closed and provide take-away sales only at the end of April and the beginning of May was at variance with the law, the NSS has announced on its information board. Thus, the NSS approved the motion of a doctor complaining about the violation of free movement and residence. The measure is not valid any more. Thus, the NSS could not cancel it, but stated it was illegal. The contested measure concerned bars, restaurants and taverns as the public was banned from entering these premises, but for instance corporate canteens had an exception. The NSS concluded the pandemic law allows for restrictions on business and manufacture premises, but not business premises of services including restaurants.

The government amendment under which businesspeople and firms could be fined up to CZK 3 million for violating the anti-epidemic restrictions issued under the crisis law was definitively scrapped as the Chamber of Deputies did not outvote the Senate's veto of the bill yesterday. The cabinet drafted the amendment due to the coronavirus crisis since there were no legal grounds for imposing fines on businesses for their violations of the anti-Covid measures taken on the basis of the crisis law. The Senate rejected the amendment in January, but a new vote on it was postponed in the Chamber of Deputies since the pro-government parties needed an absolute majority of 101 votes in the 200-seat Chamber to push it through. Yesterday, 79 out of the 161 MPs present supported the amendment.

Entrepreneurs can apply for support from the Covid 2021 program until 4 pm today. Those who recorded a sales drop of at least 50 percent in January to March compared to last year or the year before can receive CZK 500 per employee per day. The minimum contribution is CZK 1500 per day. The program covers the period from Jan. 11 to May 9. According to the Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček), the government no longer plans to continue its anti-epidemic measures, he said on Monday. Applications can be submitted via the online system of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. As of May 27, the ministry registered 14,612 claims for CZK 6.3 billion.

There were another 475 coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic on Tuesday, 183 fewer than a week ago, and this was the smallest increase on this day of the week since the end of last August, according to Health Ministry data. The incidence rate is also falling. In the past seven days, tests uncovered 28 new cases of the infection per 100,000 population, two cases fewer than on Monday. Currently, 468 people are hospitalized with coronavirus, the smallest number since mid-September. A total of 80 infected are in a serious condition. The reproduction number R, which shows how many people catch Covid-19 on average from one infected person, has slightly decreased to 0.78. It has have been under 1.0 since mid-April, which means the spread of the infection has been slowing down since then.