Czech Republic reports lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases since March 14

Prague, April 24 (CTK) – Only 55 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the Czech Republic on Thursday, which is the lowest daily increase in the number of infected people since March 14, according to the data released on the website of the Health Ministry today.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases is 7,188. The daily number of new cases has been dropping since Monday. This shows that the Easter holidays when people in the country were in contact more than usually did not negatively affect the spread of the virus.

The number of recoveries has risen by 34 to 2,186 and the number of deaths by three to 213 since Thursday evening.

On Thursday, 7,889 samples were tested for coronavirus.

The total of 195,725 samples were tested in Czechia from mid-February to Thursday morning, with Wednesday seeing the highest ever daily number of tests, 8,807. Among the samples tested, 2.37 percent tested positive on Monday, 1.6 on Tuesday, 1.12 percent on Wednesday and 0.7 on Thursday.

Based on the favourable epidemiological development, the government on Thursday decided to speed up the process of lifting the restrictive measures that were adopted to curb the epidemic, in particular the reopening of shops, which should completely open on May 25 instead of the originally planned June 8.

It also lifted the ban on the free movement of people that was introduced on March 16 and people can newly move outside in groups of up to ten members instead of maximum two. Czechs may travel abroad, including tourists. After return, they may either produce a negative COVID-19 test result or stay in isolation for two weeks.

The number of those who are currently ill with COVID-19 is 4,789. On Wednesday, 395 of them stayed in hospitals, including 77 in serious condition. A total of 546 people have left hospitals either as fully recovered or for home care.

Out of the 14 regions, the highest number of coronavirus cases is in Prague, where it reached 1,666. This is also the highest number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants, 122, followed by Central Moravia’s Olomouc Region with 106 per 100,000.

Five people with COVID-19 died on Thursday, according to the ministry’s data. Most of the total number of deaths were in Prague (78), followed by Moravia-Silesia (24) and Central Bohemia (20).

The first three cases of COVID-19 were reported in Czechia on March 1, the first patient died on March 22. Antibody tests of a part of the population for coronavirus started on Thursday and the results should indicate further development of the virus in the country.