Czech Republic reports 4,283 new coronavirus cases

The increase in the number of cases of covid-19 in the Czech Republic on Sunday fell by a third compared to the previous week to 4,283 infected. There were about 6,300 cases last Sunday. Compared to the previous Sunday, the share of positive cases in the number of tests performed also decreased from about 41 percent to 35.2 percent. According to the Ministry of Health. On Saturday, on the other hand, the increase in the number of infected people reached 8,405 cases, which was two-thirds higher than on the same day a week ago.

The number of people who ended up in a hospital with covid-19 stagnated on Saturday after the decline. On Saturday, the number of hospitalized decreased from more than 7,000 to about 6,600, and on Sunday, it was 6,622. Of these, 1,071 patients were in serious condition.

Since the beginning of the covid-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic in March, over 835,000 cases of the disease have been recorded. 13,272 infected died. According to the ministry’s website, there were 80 deaths on Sunday, but the ministry regularly increases the number of deaths in statistics. In the previous days of last week, the daily number of deaths was mostly around 150 to 160.

Last week on Wednesday, the highest daily increase in covid-19 cases since the onset of the epidemic was recorded, at more than 17,700. The share of positive cases was also very high, rising to 45.6 percent on Wednesday last week. The highest for the epidemic was on January 1, when it exceeded 52 percent. The number of hospitalized persons also grew in the previous week. There were almost 7,400 people with covid-19 in hospitals. The situation thus approached the record numbers from last November, when over 8,000 were hospitalized.

Deputy Minister of Health Vladimír Černý said on Friday that the capacity of hospitals was approaching its limits. In recent days, the media quoted the head of the internal hospital of the Cheb hospital, Stanislav Adamec, according to which it was necessary to decide in his ward which patient would receive a bed in the intensive care unit and which, despite the need, only in the standard ward.

Due to the full number of hospitals in the region, Pirates and KDU-ČSL called on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health to allow some patients to be transferred to neighboring Germany. On Sunday, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that now there is no reason for the state to ask for help abroad with covid patients. According to today’s information, the overloaded Cheb hospital will relocate 14 patients with covid-19 to other Czech Republic hospitals.

Cheb is just one of the Czech Republic regions where covid-19 has spread the most in recent days. In the past seven days, there have been approximately 1,162 cases in the Cheb region per 100,000 inhabitants. A higher increase was recorded only in the Trutnov region, where 1,280 new cases were added.

The risk index of the anti-epidemic system PES, which governs measures against the spread of covid-19, today fell slightly to 84 points out of a hundred. The previous two days were at 87 points. The PES remains at the highest, fifth level of alert.