Coronavirus update, Sept. 29, 2021: Interest in language courses declining among Czechs since Covid

Interest in language courses on the decline since Covid

The interest in language courses in schools in the Czech Republic is lower this year than before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in March 2020. The drop in interest is largely due to potential student's fear of enrolling amid a worsening of the Covid pandemic, language school representatives told CTK.

Along with traditional courses, many schools continue to offer online and hybrid lessons. However, the prices of language courses did not rise, according to the head of The Association of Language Schools. Language courses usually start at the end of September and the beginning of October. Some schools report a decline of roughly 50 percent compared to the pre-pandemic times.

The interest in remote learning is slightly rising, but 90 percent of people still prefer meeting at school directly.

Eurozone has not absorbed full shock of pandemic

The eurozone economy has not yet fully absorbed the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde said at the opening of the Forum on Central Banking, which is being held online this year.

According to Lagarde, the rapid recovery after the end of coronavirus restrictions also explains the relatively strong recent rise in inflation. What can be seen at the moment is "mainly the phase of temporary inflation in connection with the reopening of the economy," said the head of the ECB.

Many Czech seniors are not protected from Covid-19

There are still more than 416,000 seniors over 60 who are not protected from Covid-19 either by vaccination or by having undergone the infection in the Czech Republic, according to data released by the Health Information and Statistics Institute (UZIS) this week.

Since the beginning of September, their numbers have dropped by more than 12,000, the most in the Moravia-Silesia Region which has seen some 2,500 people over 60 getting inoculated against Covid but still has the highest share of unvaccinated inhabitants out of the fourteen Czech regions. In this region, 18.8 percent of the elderly are not vaccinated, the UZIS data show.

Roughly one-sixth of seniors over 60 are not vaccinated against Covid-19 in the Czech Republic, a total of some 504,000 people. In addition, the UZIS considers some 88,000 in this age group who have had Covid infection to be better protected against the virus.

Covid spread decreases on national holiday

The number of new Covid cases fell to 470 on Tuesday, which saw 203 fewer cases than on Monday and 128 fewer than a week ago. However, the Health Ministry notes that on national holidays, the number of cases regularly decreases on account of fewer tests being conducted. This Tuesday, laboratories conducted almost 33,000 tests or about 38,000 fewer than on Monday and 30,000 fewer than a week ago.

When it comes to non-working days, the 470 cases on Tuesday was the highest number since mid-May. The proportion of cases detected in the tested rose on Tuesday. Last week, there were 31 new cases per 100,000 population, one less than on the previous days.

Covid is currently spreading the fastest in Prague, where there were 50 new cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days. It is followed by the Moravia-Silesia Region with 47 cases. The best situation is in the Liberec Region, where the incidence rate fell to seven cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days.

The reproduction number R, standing for the average number of those infected by one person with Covid, slightly dropped to 1.10. Currently, 201 Czechs are hospitalized with Covid-19, 38 of whom are in serious condition. The vaccination pace continues to fall. On Tuesday, 583 doses of the vaccines were applied, the smallest number since Jan 1.

Latest Covid-19 data from the Czech Ministry of Health (Sept. 29, 2021)

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