Czech police to crack down on ski tourism to stem coronavirus infections

Czech police will screen foreigners visiting ski resorts for coronavirus when they open on Friday. The police are preparing inspections on roads from borders and at the resorts. Foreigners will have to provide a negative test for covid-19, which will be required to arrive on the slopes connected with the tightening of the anti-covid regime from the third to the fourth stage of the anti-epidemic system PES.

Hamáček said that it is necessary to come to the Czech Republic from Friday only in specific, essential cases. “It is not possible to visit friends or recreation,” he said. An exception applies to ski resorts, but a negative test is required, he added. For skiers, the police will monitor this significantly. “We are ready to enforce and control it,” Hamáček said.

The ski resorts will be allowed to operate from Friday, but there will be no accommodation and catering facilities in operation. Švejdar asked Czech visitors to follow the related measures. “Visiting rules and access roads will be adjusted,” the police president summed up.

Intensive inspections will mainly concern the direction from Poland, he added. “Citizens of Poland cannot arrive without a valid PCR test, the police will carry out random but very intensive checks on access roads from the borders to the premises, but also on the parking lots and slopes that will be in operation,” Švejdar advised.

Czech skiers have been traveling to neighboring Poland, where the slopes have been open since 5 December. Entry into the country is free, accommodation in accommodation facilities is not possible. According to information on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the operation of catering facilities is limited. Especially on the last weekends, when cable cars were not allowed in the Czech Republic, skiers from the Eagle Mountains, for example, took the opportunity to ski the nearby Polish resorts.