Czech Deputy PM Jan Hamáček tests positive for COVID-19

Prague, Oct 21 (CTK) - Czech Deputy PM and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček has tested positive for COVID-19, CSSD spokeswoman Eva Gregorova told CTK today.

Hamáček had himself tested after a meeting with Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman, who had later tested positive for COVID-19 as well.

Toman tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

Other members of the CSSD board who met Toman in the CSSD headquarters in Prague last Thursday tested negative for the virus, Gregorova said.

Hamáček, 41, who heads the Czech Central Crisis Staff for the COVID-19 epidemic combat, is staying in home quarantine.

On Sunday, Hamáček watched the developments in Prague's Old Town Square from an operational center as a demonstration against the government anti-coronvirus restrictions took place.

Hamáček said the CSSD board members, including himself, had stayed in quarantine on doctors' recommendation, although they had met all the required measures at the meeting with Toman.

On Monday, Hamáček told Impuls Radio that he had no COVID-19 symptoms and was working in a home office regime.

Meetings of the cabinet and other bodies have been held via video conference in the past weeks, as the number of COVID-19 infections has been steeply surging in the Czech Republic.

In the preceding weeks, preventive self-quarantine was practiced by Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček and Labour Minister Jana Maláčová, both CSSD deputy chairpersons. Both eventually tested negative for COVID-19, as did Industry Minister Karel Havlíček (for ANO) after a few days of self-quarantine.

Former health minister Adam Vojtěch (for ANO) stayed in home quarantine in September after meeting chief public health officer Jarmila Rážová, who tested positive afterwards.