Czech Republic reports 16,239 new coronavirus cases

The coronavirus epidemic in the Czech Republic is gaining strength before the end of the year. Tests on Tuesday revealed 16,329 positive cases, which is the most so far. The share of positive cases in the number of positive tests is at a record 48.5 percent. The laboratories thus confirmed every second infection tested. The situation is also deteriorating in hospitals, where most patients with covid-19 in the last month were treated on Tuesday. Of the 5,712 hospitalized, 826 were in serious condition, according to the Ministry of Health.

Since the beginning of March this year, when the coronavirus epidemic began to spread in the Czech Republic, the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 700,000. It currently has an infection of over 105,000 people, the most since 8 November.

On weekdays after the holidays, more testing began again, even though the daily numbers did not reach the pre-holiday level. On Tuesday, the laboratories performed 33,642 tests, about 5,000 more than on Monday. But before Christmas Day, it was more than 41,000 tests. The number of tests affects the proportion of positive cases, which has already exceeded 40 percent twice. It was Christmas Day and Tuesday.

In hospitals, about 5,000 people were treated with covid before the Christmas holidays, and more than 600 were in serious condition. During the holidays, the number of hospitalized dropped below 4,400 but began to grow after the holidays. Before the Christmas holidays, the Ministry of Health ordered hospitals to postpone planned care and prepare beds for patients with covid. The Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS) stated before the holidays that its risk scenario of development counts up to 7000 hospitalized patients by the end of the year.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, 11,429 people with covid-19 have died in the Czech Republic, with 59 more deaths on Tuesday. The number of deaths in statistics is regularly adjusted retrospectively by the Ministry. In the past seven days, except Tuesday, the death toll has exceeded one hundred or close to a day. About 2,900 people have died with covid in December, compared to almost 5,000 in November.

In recent days, the disease has spread most markedly in the Rychnov region, where 683 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants have increased in the past seven days. In this calculation, Hradec Králové and Opava also have over 600 infected people.