Chief Hygienist tests positive for COVID-19

Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová became infected with the coronavirus. Rážová is now home in quarantine. Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch is also in quarantine. He and other department’s management members will go for tests today, and the decision will be made on the procedure, the spokeswoman said. Prague hygienists have announced that they are now searching for contacts and assessing, which will require testing and quarantine.

“The Hygienic Station of the Capital City of Prague received the laboratory result in the morning hours of this day and immediately started the relevant epidemiological investigation,” said a spokesman for the Prague hygienists. He did not give the name of the chief hygienist. He only mentioned that the “positive person” is in domestic isolation. According to a spokeswoman for the ministry, Rážová felt the disease’s symptoms, so she was tested.

According to Boublík, hygienists’ goal is to find out the maximum number of people and assess whether they were “in epidemiologically significant contact” with the patient. It then decides on the procedure, tests, and quarantines.

The minister and other employees of the ministry will go for tests today. Those who have spent more than 15 minutes with the Chief Hygienist should undergo them. “The Minister of Health will enter the domestic quarantine,” the spokeswoman said.

Vojtěch canceled his program in the Karlovy Vary region precisely because he was in contact with a positive person for COVID-19, the regional authority said. He was to visit the hospitals in Cheb and Sokolov. Although he arrived in Cheb, he apologized shortly after the start of the visit and, for preventive reasons, ended the visit and returned to Prague.

The ministry is taking action. Veils are mandatory in the building. Some employees will work from home for preventive reasons, the spokeswoman specified.

After meeting the Rážová, Babiš does not have to quarantine, and he sat far enough.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and other people from the government officials who attended Tuesday’s meeting with hygienist Rážová do not need to be quarantined. Babiš said today that according to the decision of the director of the Prague hygiene station, Zdeněk Jágrová, no restrictions would apply to them because they sat at a sufficient distance during the meeting and complied with other preventive measures. Babiš does not change his next program. Today’s extraordinary meeting of the cabinet will also take place via video conference. Rážová confirmed tests with coronavirus infection, and she is now in home isolation.

Babiš stated that Jágrová contacted him this morning. “I wear an FFP2 respirator almost everywhere, and the room was ventilated, there were high ceilings,” the prime minister said. According to him, there is a space of up to four meters in the room between a row of tables where representatives of the Straka Academy and other guests sit. “Based on this, Ms. Jágrová says that we do not have to go to quarantine, we have no decision of hygiene, that we should limit ourselves,” the prime minister added.

Babiš talked about the two-hour meeting with the hygienists on Tuesday in the program Twenty Minutes of Radiožurnál. He mentioned that, in addition to Rážová, Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch (for YES) also took part. However, the Prime Minister was wearing respiratory protection at all times, and people on opposite sides of the Chamber did not come into closer contact with each other.

A test confirmed Rážová’s COVID-19 infection. Because of this, Vojtěch will enter the domestic quarantine, together with other members of the ministry’s management, will go for tests today and, according to the results, will decide on the next step. Prague hygienists are now searching for contacts and assessing, which will require testing and quarantine.