Czech Republic reports 1,673 new COVID-19 cases

The coronavirus epidemic in the Czech Republic continues to slow down, while the rate of vaccination against covid-19 is accelerating. On Tuesday, laboratories confirmed 1,673 new cases of the infection, about 740 less than a week ago. Compared to Monday, the increase is higher as usual, this time by 131. 77,615 people were vaccinated against covid-19, about 5,500 more than the previous Tuesday, compared to Monday, the benefits were less than 2,000 more. According to the Ministry of Health. The number of infected per 100,000 population has dropped to 88 from the previous 95 in the last seven days.

Vaccination began in the Czech Republic at the end of last December, and since then about 3.815 million doses have been given by Tuesday evening. Almost 1.077 million people are fully vaccinated, ie about a tenth of the population. In recent days, the rate of vaccination has accelerated and since last week it has remained on working days over 70,000 vaccinated per day. On Thursday, the number of vaccinated was a record, with medics administering 87,682 doses of the vaccine. It is vaccinated in the country with four vaccines, from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. About 79 percent of the doses were from Pfizer / BioNTech, less than 11 percent from AstraZenec and about a tenth from Moderna. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has been vaccinated for about three weeks and which, unlike the others, uses only one dose, received over 18,000 people on Tuesday night.

The daily increases in the number of coronavirus infections have been gradually declining since the beginning of March, when they rose to almost 17,000. The number of deaths of people with covid-19 has been declining since about mid-March. Even in the first half of March, more than 200 infected people died daily, while in recent days the number of deaths usually did not exceed 50 per day. So far, the ministry has registered 28 deaths with covid on Monday, and 15 on Tuesday. A total of 29,787 people have died since the beginning of last March, when the first cases of coronavirus infection appeared in the Czech Republic. The most tragic in terms of covido deaths in more than a year of the epidemic was March this year, when, according to current data from the Ministry of Health, 6009 people died with a confirmed infection.

The number of hospitalized with covid-19 is also gradually declining. On Tuesday, 1,796 were infected in hospitals, 180 less than on Monday. In mid-March, around 9,000 patients with covid-19 required hospital care. There are 349 patients in severe condition, at least since the beginning of last October. However, the burden on hospitals is actually much higher, because the statistics do not include patients who are already covid negative, but still require hospital care. According to the ministry, about 6,300 standard oxygen beds were available this morning, representing 27 percent of the total. The bed with artificial lung ventilation is unoccupied by approximately 680, or 29 percent.

As on Monday and Tuesday, the labs performed fewer tests week-on-week. On Tuesday, the ministry registered almost 190,000 of them, a week ago it was about 73,000 more. The number of PCR tests dropped to 16,200 and antigen tests to 174,000. The share of positive tests increased compared to the previous day. For preventive tests, which make up the majority of the total, it increased to 0.13 percent. In the so-called epidemiological indication, when people are tested, for example for possible contact with the infected, the proportion of positive increased to 2.82 percent, and in the diagnostic indication, when people with symptoms, for example, are tested, the proportion increased to 9.75 percent.

The reproduction number indicating how many other people on average infect one positive test has fallen slightly today from the previous 0.81 to 0.79. It has been below the break-even value of one, which means a slowdown in the epidemic, since mid-April.

Since last March, the disease has been confirmed in almost 1.649 million people, most of which have recovered. Coronavirus measures are gradually being relaxed in the country. Among other things, the government takes the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days as a key figure, now it is 88. The government releases restrictions on the basis of six packages. For example, they announce the opening of all closed services if the number of people infected per 100,000 inhabitants is below 100 or the opening of outdoor restaurant facilities until the number of people infected with coronavirus falls below 75 per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. All the shops and most of the services that have been closed due to the coronavirus epidemic have opened this Monday, and the restaurant gardens plan to open the cabinet from next Monday.