Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for May 10, 2021

Prague Castle to light 30,000 candles to honor Covid victims this evening

Czech president Miloš Zeman will open a memorial for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, May 10, 2021 at 7:30 pm at Prague Castle. The president will symbolically light the first of 30,000 candles to light up the courtyards of Prague Castle. The castle calls the event "the largest act of reverence to take place at Prague Castle to date." Candles will fill three castle courtyards while a symbolic path will be created from all entrances to the complex, leading visitors to the third courtyard where they will be able to leave a flower. Prague Castle has published instructions on its website asking visitors to adhere to hygienic and epidemiological measures, including adherence to spacing and wearing respirators. 

Czech Republic lifts quarantine, testing requirements from Israel

A new travel map is in force from Monday, May 10. Israel will be moved to the green low-risk category while Slovakia and the Canary Islands move to the orange medium-risk category. As a "green" country, citizens of Israel will be permitted to enter the Czech Republic without being required to take a PCR test or follow quarantine rules upon their arrival. As Slovakia and the Canary Islands move to the "orange" countries’ group, all persons who return to the Czech Republic from both of these countries must present a negative Covid test, upon their arrival, if they use public transport to return. 

Czech president denies helping plan Hamáček's Moscow trip

The Presidential Office helped Deputy PM Jan Hamáček prepare his visit to Moscow, Czech server Seznam Zpravy wrote in a report released this weekend, adding that foreign section head Rudolf Jindrák confirmed it. Jindrák told Czech Radio he had only reacted to Hamacek’s tweet about a Russian-U.S. summit in Prague. Seznam Zpravy cited Jindrák as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden would have to be invited by President Zeman and that the official invitation had already been written, but eventually it was neither sent nor handed over. Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson has said that the Biden administration is still working through the logistics of the meeting including agenda and location.

Czech zoos attract record visitors causing traffic delays and closures

Warm and sunny weekend weather attracted thousands of visitors to Czech zoos. In a number of locations, the crowds caused traffic problems around the zoo as well as closures due to zoos reaching maximum capacity, reports Novinky. The zoo in Dvůr Králové in the Trutnov region was visited by 3,674 people on Saturday, and by 2,840 visitors by noon on Sunday. The zoo at Svatý Kopeček near Olomouc also saw a surge of visitors over the weekend, which resulted in the collapse of traffic and police closing access roads. At the Ostrava Zoo, traffic jams were a result of the limited number of parking spaces. In Prague Zoo, which can accommodate a maximum of 4,000 visitors at a time reached capacity on Saturday before 11 am. Visitors are alerted to closures by whiteboards in the metro.

Today's temps to reach 30°C, but cold weather will hit again

The Czech Republic could see its first tropical day of the year Monday. Temperatures in the afternoon could hit the 30-degree mark in many places. But summer weather will be short-lived: on Tuesday evening strong winds and possible thunderstorms could give way to a drastically colder Wednesday. Storms and heavy rain are also expected on Wednesday when a cold front will move in and temperatures will drop considerably, in some places by more than 15°C. Thursday and Friday will continue with clouds and possibly rain showers as well as cooler morning temps due to heavy clouds.