Czech Republic coronavirus updates, August 27: 399 new cases, second-highest increase to date

The Czech Republic reported 399 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to the latest figures posted by the Czech Health Ministry this morning.

It’s the second-highest daily rise in new cases since the start of the epidemic in March, after 505 new cases were reported last Friday. On Tuesday, the country reported what is now its fourth-highest increase, with 368 new COVID-19 cases.

In total, there have been 22,951 COVID-19 cases in the Czech Republic over the past six month; about 75% of those cases (16,954) have officially recovered. There have been 418 COVID-19-related deaths in the country, leaving a total of 5,579 known active cases.

The vast majority of those active cases are mild, according to Health Information and Statistics Institute (ÚZIS) director Ladislav Dušek; as of yesterday, there were 122 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Czech Republic, representing 2.5% of the known cases; that ratio was 10% at the height of the epidemic in March and April. There are 22 patients considered to be in serious condition.

Most of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past weeks have only mild symptoms, and some have displayed no symptoms at all.

While it’s a good sign that the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Czech Republic has remained relatively stable over the past month, the sharp increase in the number of new cases is likely to be bad news for travelers.

Currently, the most-affected districts in the Czech Republic are Kolín, with 43 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, Prague, which has reported about 38 new cases per 100,000 residents during that time, and Žďár nad Sázavou, which has about 31 new cases.

None of the other 73 districts in the Czech Republic have reported more than 30 new cases over the past seven days, but 12 other districts have reported between 20-30 cases, and more than half of the remaining districts have reported between 10-20 new COVID-19 cases in the past week.

This morning, Prague public transport officials announced that Prague metro, tram, and bus service would not be returning to full service from September, as fewer passengers are expected to ride due to COVID-19. Instead, public transport vehicles will run at about 90% of their normal rate, as they did in June.