Czech COVID-19 cases near 20,000

There were 197 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic on Saturday. It is 96 less than on Friday and is also the second-lowest increase this week. At the weekend, however, the laboratories do fewer tests, and therefore the number of detected cases tends to be lower. Another 65 cases have been added so far. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 19,956 have tested positive for COVID-19. Currently, 5,790 people are sick, according to data on the Ministry of Health website.

The lowest daily increase in confirmed cases this week was recorded by the ministry on Monday when 140 infected people were added to the statistics. On Tuesday, however, there were 287, and 330 on Thursday, which was the highest value since April 3. On Friday, the daily increase slowed to 293 confirmed cases.

Of the almost 20,000 infected since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic, nearly 70 percent have already recovered from the disease. In contrast, 397 people died with the new coronavirus, eight of them this week.

In most infected people, the virus is mild. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, there are 104 people in hospitals.

Of the individual regions, the situation is the worst in the Frýdek-Místek district, where almost 35 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants have been added in the last seven days. Prague and Uherské Hradiště follow with a minimum distance. More than 30 confirmed cases of new coronavirus per 100,000 population in the previous seven days are still in the Klatovy and northern Pilsen regions.

On Monday, epidemiologists and hygienists will discuss the development of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES) during a meeting of the Government Council for Health Risks. Together, they will assess coronavirus epidemiological action plans for the beginning of the school year. In addition to the manuals for teaching, the council should also evaluate the conditions for the functioning of sports clubs or cultural institutions. The Council will also discuss reducing the quarantine period by four days to ten days, as supported by the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Health should update the map of districts on Monday according to the degree of risk of infection, the so-called traffic light. On the map published earlier this week, the city of Prague and the Frýdek-Místek district are marked in green, the first of three, indicating the disease’s occurrence without the transmission of the disease in the community. Other regions of the Czech Republic are white, i.e., with zero or negligible risk. Higher degrees of risk, i.e., orange and red, have not yet appeared in the Czech Republic.