Czech Republic coronavirus updates, Nov. 5: 15,729 COVID-19 cases sets new daily record

There were 15,729 new COVID-19 cases reported in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, according to the latest data published by the Czech Health Ministry this morning.

Despite a general downward trend in new cases over the past week following new lockdown measures, yesterday's total represents a record high for the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in a single day in the Czech Republic.

Wednesday's total is the third time the number of daily cases in the Czech Republic has exceeded 15,000, and 65 more cases than the previous high of 15,664 set on Tuesday, October 27. Yesterday's number was 2,751 more cases than the previous Wednesday, though that was a public holiday with fewer tests performed.

The new data could be bad news for those expecting the lockdown measures to be eased in the near future. Czech Health Minister Jan Blatný is expected to give a presentation this Friday that will include a model for easing or strengthening the current restrictions.

An updated tally of 223 COVID-19-related deaths have now been attributed to Tuesday, which is also a record high. There have been 123 deaths reported on Wednesday so far, but that number will rise.

Since March, a total of 4,133 COVID-19-related deaths have now been reported in the Czech Republic.

There are currently 8,278 COVID-19 patients in Czech hospitals, which is the highest that number has been throughout the epidemic. Of those patients, 1,244 are considered to be in serious condition.

Blatný stated yesterday that he expects the number of hospitalized patients to continue to rise over the next 10 days before seeing an improvement.

Since March, the Czech Republic has now reported a total of 378,716 COVID-19 cases. Almost 200,000 of those have recovered, leaving the number of known current infections at 174, 820.

The rise of COVID-19 cases has been highest in Pelhřimov, which has reported about 1,119 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week. Vsetín follows with about 1,072 cases per 100,000 residents in that span.

Counterintuitively, the densely-populated capital city of Prague has now reported the fewest number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents out of all Czech localities, at about 379 over the past week.

Over the past two weeks, the Czech Republic has been the second-most-affected state in the EU with about 1,587 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents trailing only Belgium (1,669 cases), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.