Czech Republic reports 4,239 new coronavirus cases

On Monday, there were 4,239 new cases of covid-19 in the Czech Republic, which is again more than a week ago. 666 more were infected than the previous Monday. The number of deaths since the beginning of the epidemic in March has exceeded 9,000. According to the Ministry of Health, the share of newly recorded cases of infection in the number of tests performed, and the number of hospitalized patients has also increased. The index of the anti-epidemic system PES is again at 64 points today. The third day is thus above the limit of the fourth level of alert. However, in the Czech Republic, the third degree still applies, and the ministry is not yet planning to move to a higher level.

If the PES risk index is three or more days above the current level of alert, the government should have considered moving to a higher level according to the PES methodology. However, the Minister of Health Jan Blatný said that the ministry has not yet proposed a transition to the fourth degree on Monday after the government meeting.

The ministry has been partially tightening measures against covid-19 since Wednesday compared to the steps given in the table of PES measures for the third degree. For example, it limited the opening hours of restaurants. When the Ministry introduced the PES in mid-November, Blatný stated that it had a system to help make the situation more readable and predictable.

The Ministry is also preparing a change in the calculation of the PES index, which, in addition to the so-called PCR tests for covid-19, will also include faster antigen tests. According to Blatný, this will improve the PES risk score.

The increase in coronavirus infections accelerates steadily over several days. As of Thursday, the daily increases are higher than on the same day of the previous week. Previously, daily increments have been declining since October and November, when they reached record levels of around 15,000 cases.

On Monday, both the number of new cases of the disease and their share in the number of tests performed increased. While it was at about 17.3 percent on Sunday, it reached 20.7 percent on Monday. The percentage fluctuated significantly last week – from about 16 percent to almost 26 percent.

On Monday, there was also an increase in the number of people who ended up in hospitals due to covid-19. Compared to Sunday, the number of hospitalized on Monday increased by more than two hundred to 4,348, of which over 550 are in serious condition. There are still significantly fewer hospitalized than a month ago when there were around 8,300 people with covid-19 in hospitals, the most since the beginning of the epidemic.

Since 1 March, when the first cases of coronavirus infection appeared in the Czech Republic, a total of over 551,000 cases of covid-19 have been reported. The total number of people who died with covid-19 on Monday reached 9036. In recent days, the number of deaths per day has remained below one hundred, while in the first half of November, it was around two hundred. Covid-19 currently affects over 57,000 people in the country.

The widest spread of the disease has recently been recorded in the Havlíčkův Brod region, where 517 cases of covid-19 have increased per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days. The PES risk index is currently the highest in the Ústí Region, where it reached 76 points. This is already at the lower limit for the highest fifth level of alert in the anti-epidemic system. The lowest is still the index in Prague with 49 points, close to the range of the second and third degrees.

While the risk score of the whole Czech Republic has been around 60 points since 19 November, on the border of the third and fourth degree, there are more significant differences between individual regions. In addition to the Ústí nad Labem region, where the score is already above the fifth-degree limit, the Karlovy Vary, Zlín, Olomouc, and Liberec regions are also approaching the highest level. In all these regions, the risk index is above 70 points. The range for the fifth degree is 76 to 100 points. Most regions have a risk index at the fourth degree level – between 61 and 75 points. Only Prague is in the third degree, which is still officially valid in the Czech Republic.