Czech Republic coronavirus updates, Nov. 13: R number at 0.8 as cases continue to drop, death toll now at 5,755

The Czech Republic saw 4,312 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, 2,300 fewer than the same day last week. There are currently 7,564 patients in hospital, 330 fewer than on the same day last week. The death toll has now reached 5,755, according to the Health Ministry's latest data.

Since the pandemic outbreak in March, 446,675 have tested positive and nearly two thirds of them have recovered so far. There are about 140,201 current cases at present. Most of the infected have mild symptoms of the disease, and 1,120 people are hospitalized with serious symptoms.

The rise in new cases has been slowing for several days. Health Minister Jan Blatny (ANO) said on Wednesday and that judging by the data on the spread of the virus, the Czech Republic was obviously past the worst of it, but the number of people in hospital will remain high for some time.

On Monday, only 20 percent of those tested were positive - the lowest number in the past month. During the past week, the percentage of positive tests remained below 30 percent, with 24.3 percent on Tuesday and nearly 29 percent on Wednesday respectively.

The virus is still spreading the fastest in the Pelhrimov district, south Bohemia, with 896 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days, followed by the Jindrichuv Hradec, Havlickuv Brod and Zdar nad Sazavou districts, with more than 800 cases. The best situation is in the capital of Prague and the Prague-West district, both with 249 new infections per 100,000 in the past week.

Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlicek (ANO) said in the Senate today that the latest developments give hope that shops might reopen before Christmas.