Prague Municipal Court: Not enough evidence for regulation requiring masks to be worn outdoors

Mask requirements remain in effect until November 21, after which the Czech government will have to give new evidence to continue the regulation.

James Fassinger

Written by James Fassinger Published on 13.11.2020 14:58:00 (updated on 13.11.2020) Reading time: 1 minute

In a judgment published by the Municipal Court in Prague on its official website today, Judge Aleš Sabol ruled that the current measures issued by the Ministry of Health lack specific and comprehensible evidence to require citizens to wear masks in outdoor areas.

"The October 19 measure lacks specific, comprehensible and substantiated evidence for the basis of whether it is really necessary to insist on the mandatory wearing of respiratory protective equipment to the extent currently in order to achieve the declared objective," he said in a court press release.

According to the court, the ministry only continued with earlier justifications for the measure and did not present new data on why measures needed to be further tightened. The current restriction, which was put in place October 21 - the wearing of masks in outdoor areas of municipalities in cars - will remain in effect until November 21, after which the Czech government must give new evidence to continue the regulation.

The court ruled against restrictions put in place by the Ministry of Health once before, during the spring wave of the pandemic. At that time, the court decided that the measures illegally restricted free movement of people, as well as retail shops and services. However, as with the current ruling, the government was given time to present more supporting evidence, after which, the measures remained in force.

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