Czech Republic reports 504 new COVID-19 cases

Laboratories in the Czech Republic confirmed 504 new cases of covid-19 on Sunday, in a week-on-week comparison it is about 320 less and it is the lowest daily increase since last September 6. This follows from information on the website of the Ministry of Health. Weekend increments tend to be lower, as less is tested. Health workers vaccinated 19,796 people against coronavirus on Sunday, an increase of about 1,400 over the previous Sunday, but this is the lowest number of reported doses of the vaccine in one day.

Since last March, the disease has been confirmed in more than 1.6 million people in the country. Of these, 29,365 patients with confirmed covid-19 disease died.

There are now 134 confirmed cases of covid in seven days per 100,000 inhabitants in the Czech Republic, three less than the previous day. It is this indicator that is currently crucial for the government in easing anti-epidemic restrictions. The data differs considerably in individual districts and regions. It is most favorable in the Karlovy Vary region, where 54 more infected people per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week. On the contrary, in the Zlín and South Bohemian regions there are over 200 infected per 100,000 inhabitants. Among the districts, the infection is now the most widespread in the Zlín region, with 250 newly infected per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days.

The epidemic situation in the Czech Republic has been improving in recent weeks. Among other things, coronavirus vaccination should contribute to its management. Since its launch at the end of last year, healthcare professionals have administered 3.2 million doses of the vaccine, with 1.012 million people fully vaccinated. On weekdays on weekdays, medics gave an average of almost 66,000 doses of vaccine. Most were administered on Thursday, over 77,000, the most in one day since vaccination began.

As the coronavirus spread improves, so does the burden on hospitals, and most hospitals are slowly returning to non-acute surgery and delayed care. According to the ministry, there were about 2,400 patients with covid in Czech hospitals on Sunday, similarly to Saturday, and 460 were in serious condition. The numbers hospitalized with coronavirus are thus at the level of about the middle of last October. However, the ministry’s statistics do not include patients who do not show symptoms of covid after ten days, but still need hospital care. There were 28 percent vacant beds with lung ventilation in hospitals this morning, and 30 percent of the standard oxygen beds were available.

On Sunday, almost 62,000 covid tests were performed at the laboratories on coronavirus tests, of which 5,600 were more accurate PCR tests, the others were antigenic. On weekdays, there are several times more tests. For example, last Monday there were almost 270,000. The share of positives in preventive tests, which make up the majority of the total number, fell to 0.17 percent compared to Friday and Saturday and reached the level of other days last week. A similar development was also in the so-called epidemiological indication, when people are tested, for example, for possible contact with the infected person, and in the diagnostic indication, when people showing symptoms, for example, are tested.

The reproduction number, indicating how many other people are infected by one person who tested positive, has risen to 0.89 from 0.88 to date. Below the breakpoint of one, which means slowing down the epidemic, is 19 consecutive days.

In view of the improving coronavirus situation, the government has further relaxed anti-epidemic measures from today. Today, after a long time, hairdressers and other establishments connected with body care and animals, which were still closed due to the epidemic, were opened. In addition, in Prague and the six regions with the most favorable epidemic situation, secondary school pupils are returning to the benches, so far in rotation. Galleries and museums also open there. From today, the number of regions where all children can go to kindergartens will increase from three to seven.