Coronavirus update, June 25, 2021: Respirators to remain mandatory indoors, in public transport

Plus: 96 delta variant cases confirmed in the Czech Republic, Czechs can get vaccinated sooner than after 90 days after Covid.

Expats.cz Staff

Written by Expats.cz Staff Published on 25.06.2021 09:20:00 (updated on 25.06.2021) Reading time: 5 minutes

Respirators to remain mandatory indoors, in public transport

Respirators will remain mandatory indoors and in public transport and people will not be allowed to wear face masks instead because the number of new coronavirus cases stopped falling," Health Minister Adam Vojtěch said.

"We are not going to generally replace them with face masks because we want to wait for further development. We can see a worsening in the last few days, the data show that the decreasing trend stopped and it is rather a stagnation or a worsening of the situation," he said.

Vojtěch pointed out on Wednesday that the decrease in Covid incidence has stopped in Prague. New cases appeared more often also in schools, he said, adding that this occurred after the duty to wear face masks during classes was canceled for students. He said caution is needed so that the leaving of children for holidays and their meeting in other groups does not lead to a worsening of the epidemic situation.

96 delta variant cases confirmed in the Czech Republic

The Czech National Health Institute (SZÚ) has confirmed 96 cases of the delta mutation of the coronavirus so far, and it suspects its community transfer in the northern Liberec Region. By Friday, June 18, the SZÚ registered 30 cases of the increasingly contagious delta variant, which was previously known as the Indian mutation, the data on the SZÚ web show. Liberec regional public health officer Vladimír Valenta wrote in a press release that the higher number of confirmed delta infections in Liberec is due to the region being the only one where all coronavirus-positive samples have been subjected to discriminatory PCR testing for many weeks. The other of the country's 14 regions are only going to launch the practice only now, he said.

Czechs can get vaccinated sooner than after 90 days after Covid

Czechs can get inoculated sooner than after 90 days after having recovered from Covid-19 as of Friday as the Health Ministry canceled the previous mandatory deadline, it reported in a press release today. Some people are reluctant to get vaccinated or their GPs discourage them from it as they still have a high amount of antibodies. As of Friday, those who recovered from Covid-19 will be allowed to register for the vaccination right after their two-week isolation over a positive Covid test. This way, the ministry wants to speed up the vaccination and revise its current strategy after consultations with its expert team. The available vaccines are efficient against Covid variants, and the Health Ministry wants to protect people even more, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch said.

Prague metro hours to be extended

The Prague metro will run again until midnight from 15 July. Prague, ROPID and the Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) have decided to extend the operation of the metro in connection with the growth in demand and the number of transported passengers in the metro after 8 pm. The hours were cut due to Covid restrictions limiting people’s movements. The last daily metro connections will depart from the center of Prague between 12:02 and 12:08 am, depending on the line and station. From Thursday, July 1, 2021, after more than a year, the AE (Airport Express) line will also return to operation, connecting the Prague Main Railway Station and Václav Havel Prague Airport with direct connections. From 1 July, the holiday timetable will apply to Prague's public transport and PID bus lines.  

Prague hygienists urge people to follow rules

Prague hygienists are urging residents to continue to comply with anti-coronavirus safety measures, and are monitoring the current state of the epidemic with concern. The number of new Covid cases in Prague has stopped declining since the middle of last week and is gradually rising. Among the regions of the Czech Republic, Prague in absolute numbers is currently the region with the highest incidence of Covid-19.

Football fans urged to take care against infection

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch asked football fans who are preparing for a match of the Czech national team in Hungary to be careful against the infection . Ideally, they should be tested for coronavirus when they return, he told ČTK. The match of the football Euro 2020, where the Czech Republic will face the Netherlands, will take place in Budapest on Sunday. Carriers are already seeing increased interest in connections to the Hungarian capital.

Teachers have more work, stress over Covid pandemic

Online education amid the coronavirus epidemic brought along the need of more time for preparation of the courses, teaching and communication with students, but many teachers report they feel exhausted and worry about the lack of students' motivation, a survey by PAQ Research showed. The number of teachers working six and more hours a day nearly doubled from 37 percent to 56 percent in a year-over-year comparison. Simultaneously, more teachers reported they feel exhausted, from 45 to 55 percent. Women felt more tired than men, the difference equaled some 20 percent in winter. Fifty-four percent of teachers say the motivation of students has deteriorated over the past year. Two-thirds of teachers expressed their worries about the loss of students' motivation in winter as against 53 percent in spring 2020.

Number of new cases on a weekday lowest since July

There were 99 new Covid cases on Thursday, some 58 fewer than last week. The number is below 100 on a weekday for the first time since July 2020. Eight districts report zero infected in the last seven days. In the last seven days, Prague has registered about 15 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants. There are currently 76 people in hospitals, 12 of whom are in serious condition or in need of high-intensity care. Last Thursday, there were 114 people in hospitals with Covid-19 and 16 of them were in serious condition. One person died on Thursday, but the total number may still be updated during the day. The reproduction number R is at 0.77, down from a revised 0.83 the previous day.

Latest Covid-19 data from the Czech Ministry of Health (June 25, 2021)

  • New cases 99
  • Deaths 30,292
  • Currently hospitalized 76
  • PCR tests performed 7,876,060
  • Antigen tests performed 20,748,020
  • Total vaccinations 7,570,988
  • Daily increase in vaccinations 113,314
  • People who have completed vaccination 2,870,083
  • New cases per 100,000 in seven days 7
  • PES index 29
  • R number 0.77

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