Czech Republic reports 3,923 new COVID-19 cases

On Sunday, the number of patients with serious covid-19 in the Czech Republic rose to 1,728, 155 more than a week ago. 7,979 were hospitalized, almost 500 more than the previous Sunday. The spread of covid-19 slowed on Sunday. There were 3,923 confirmed cases of infection, which was 660 new infections less than the last Sunday. The share of new cases in the total number of tests performed also decreased slightly.

The number of hospitalizations has jumped in recent weeks. According to the ministry, there were around 5,500 of them at the end of January. Last week, on Tuesday, 2 March, the number of hospitalizations exceeded 8,500, which was the most since the beginning of the epidemic last March.

Ministry statistics do not include patients who do not show coronavirus symptoms after ten days. The number of occupied hospital beds is thus higher. Today morning it was like in earlier days by the Ministry of loose only 14 percent of beds in intensive care units (ICU) and Anesthesiology and Resuscitation (ARO) in the Czech Republic and 25 percent standard beds with oxygen.

This week will be the most critical in terms of bed occupancy in the ICU, said Minister of Health Jan Blatný on Sunday in the Czech television program Otázky Václava Moravec. According to Blatný, there are hundreds of backup beds, but the problem is the lack of staff. The Minister wants to solve the situation by calling outpatient specialists and medics.

On Sunday, the increase in the number of coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic slowed down. In addition to the total number of new cases, the share of positive tests fell to 32.8 percent. On Saturday, the percentage of newly confirmed cases in the number of tests was 42.2 percent, and the previous Sunday was about 34 percent. Over 10,000 coronavirus PCR assays and more than 30,000 antigen assays have been performed. Altogether, more people were tested than a week ago.

Since 27 December last year, covid-19 has been vaccinated against the Czech Republic. Since then, a total of about 830,000 doses of vaccine have been given by Sunday night, and over 262,000 people have already received both doses. 9578 doses were given on Sunday, about three times more than the previous Sunday. However, the number of vaccines on weekends was still significantly lower than on weekdays, when almost 35,000 doses of vaccine were given daily last week. Last week, Minister Blatný called for faster vaccinations on weekends. In March, Blatný wants to ensure that at least 35,000 doses of vaccines are given daily and, in April, even 100,000 doses.

Since 1 March last year, when the first cases of coronavirus infection were recorded in the Czech Republic, a total of 1.3 million cases of covid-19 have been confirmed. According to the Ministry, more than 168,000 people are currently ill. During the entire epidemic, 21,882 people died with covid-19. The most outbreaks in the last week were in the Kolín region, where 1272 cases of covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants have increased in the past seven days.

The PES anti-epidemic system index, which initially governed measures against coronavirus spread, has remained at 76 points to date. Since 14 February, it has remained at the highest, fifth level of readiness, which is valid from 76 points out of a hundred. The so-called reproductive number giving the average number of people infected one positive test dropped from Sunday’s about 1.03 to 1.01.