Czech citizens over the age of 60 will get a respirator and five face masks by mail

Prague, Sept 9 (CTK) – Czech citizens over the age of 60 will get one respirator and five face masks by post, the Czech government has decided at an extraordinary meeting, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček said on Twitter.

Thursday morning, firefighters and police officers will start preparing the protective equipment, from state reserves, for delivery to the state-run Czech Post postal services company that will distribute the respirators and face masks, Hamáček said.

According to the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), there are 2.8 million people older than 60 in the country, which had 10.7 million inhabitants at the end of last year.

Two days ago, the government announced that it would send protective equipment to pensioners if the epidemiological situation markedly worsened. The ministers said then that elderly people should get the equipment via Czech Post within three days.

About 9,800 of the infected have not recovered yet. The death toll in the country is 444.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said the Czech state has bought about 13 million FFP2 respirators and 75 million face masks.

Hamáček earlier said that his ministry has 70 million face masks and eight million FFP2 respirators, stored at the police depository in Opočínek near Pardubice.

According to the CSU data, the state is to give about 2.8 million respirators and 14 million face masks to people over 60 from its reserves. The government said it is ready to give three million respirators and 15 million face masks. It also confirmed that 3.2 million face masks will be available at polling stations during the regional and Senate elections in the beginning of October.