Czech Republic reports 10,854 new COVID-19 cases

Even on Wednesday, the number of newly confirmed cases of covid-19 in the Czech Republic was lower than last week by more than a third. There were 10,854 more infected, while last Wednesday there were over 17,700 new cases, the highest increase in the entire epidemic. The share of positive tests fell from 45.6 percent last Wednesday to about 34.6 percent. According to the Ministry of Health.

According to the office, 70,680 people have been vaccinated against covid-19 in the Czech Republic by 6 pm on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES) estimated that 70,000 to 75,000 people were vaccinated. So far, approximately 169,000 vaccines have been delivered to the Czech Republic.

The daily increases in coronavirus infections have been declining since Sunday compared to the same days a week ago. The shares of recorded cases of the disease in the number of tests performed are also lower than the previous week. In recent days, however, they have been rising again. On Monday and Tuesday, the share remained below 30 percent, while on Wednesday, it reached almost 35 percent. The percentage of positive cases reached the highest for the whole epidemic on 1 January this year, over 52 percent.

Compared to last week and Tuesday, the number of hospitalized decreased on Wednesdays. The previous Wednesday, there were about 7,400 people with covid-19 in hospitals, and this week on Tuesday, 7,500. On Wednesday, the number of hospitalized dropped to 7,182, of which about 1,100 patients were in serious condition.

Since the beginning of the covid-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic in March, almost 867,000 cases of this disease have been recorded. 13,856 infected died. According to the ministry, there were 82 deaths on Wednesday, but the office regularly increases the number of deaths in statistics retrospectively. In previous days, the daily number of deaths was usually around 150 to 170. On Friday, 8 January, according to updated data from the Ministry, there were 182 deaths, which was the highest daily number of deaths since mid-November.

Most of the whole Czech Republic continues to spread in the Trutnov region. Over the past seven days, there have been 1,136 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

After the Christmas holidays, vaccination against covid-19 began in the Czech Republic. Czechia is still lagging behind the European average in terms of the number of covid-19 vaccines prescribed per capita. This follows from data on the Oxford University website. According to today’s data of the Ministry, converted to the number of inhabitants according to the Czech Statistical Office figures, for every 100 inhabitants of the country, there are approximately 0.66 doses of vaccine issued. According to Oxford University, the European average was 0.98 doses on 12 January. For example, in neighboring Poland, it was 0.82 doses on 13 January and Slovakia on 12 January 0.72 doses. For instance, in Israel, where vaccination began on 19 December, there are already 23 doses of vaccine issued for every 100 inhabitants.

The number of vaccinations on the Ministry’s website indicates the number of reported doses of vaccine. Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are now available in the Czech Republic, require two amounts, which must be three to four weeks apart. Vaccination against covid-19 in the Czech Republic began on 27 December, so due to the gap between doses, the Ministry’s data on issued doses probably corresponds to the total number of vaccinated.