Czech Republic reports 7,860 new coronavirus cases

The risk index in the anti-epidemic system PES is on the fifth day in the Czech Republic at the highest, the fifth level of alert. From Friday to today, it stays at 76 points out of a hundred. According to the Ministry of Health.

According to the office, the proportion of new cases of covid-19 in the number of tests performed was the highest since 11 November. It reached 30.2 percent. In the Czech Republic, the fourth degree of PES is officially valid so far. According to previous information from the Ministry, if the risk index is kept at a worse level for at least three days, this may be a reason to introduce stricter measures against covid-19. The government will discuss the tightening of standards on Wednesday.

The Minister of Health Jan Blatný said that if he proposes a tightening because of the epidemic’s development, the measures will change with effect from Friday 25 December. According to the original plan of measures, shops should also be closed in the fifth stage, except for the sale of necessities and service establishments. The government has so far left open compared to the plan of measures. According to Blatný, however, exceptions to the measure are no longer envisaged in the fifth stage.

In individual regions, the PES risk index reached 86 points in the Karlovy Vary region. Again, the lowest was in the South Bohemian Region with 68 points and in Prague with 71 points, which is still at the fourth-degree level. In all other regions, the risk score is already at the level of the fifth degree.

Since last week, the ministry has been publishing second PES scores in press releases on its website, which includes more demanding and reliable PCR tests and faster antigen tests. This score for the whole of the Czechia has remained steadily at 66 points out of a hundred since Friday.

The increase in the number of covid-19 cases in the Czech Republic has been accelerating in recent weeks. Coronaviruses increased by 7,860 on Monday, which is about 2700 more than a week ago. The share of positively tested out of the total number of tests has also been growing significantly recently. It reached 16 percent at the end of November but has now almost doubled, exceeding 30 percent on Monday. The ministry initially stated that the share of cases in the number of tests performed reached 31.4 percent on Sunday, but today it reduced Sunday’s figure to 29.2 percent.

Since the beginning of the covid-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic in March, a total of over 635,000 cases of infection have been recorded. 10,562 infected died. Recently, the daily increase in deaths has been around a hundred. According to updated ministry data, there were as many as 260 deaths a day, with a record increase in deaths in early November. The number of deaths increased by 55 on Monday, but the ministry has repeatedly raised the number of deaths in statistics.

The number of people who ended up with covid-19 in hospitals increased slightly on Monday. From Sunday’s 4519, 4728 were hospitalized. 602 patients are in serious condition. Minister of Health Blatný defended the decision that the government will discuss a possible tightening of measures against covid-19 only on Wednesday by saying that hospitals’ situation is stable. “As there is still a disproportion between the increase in hospitals and the increase in the number of newly diagnosed people, I suggested that the final decision on whether to move to the fifth degree should be made on Wednesday,” he said on Monday.

In most patients, covid-19 is milder. About 84,000 people in the Czech Republic suffer from the disease, of whom 5.6 percent ended up in the hospital.

In recent days, covid-19 has spread the most in the Ostrava region, where over 644 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants have increased in the past seven days. The second-highest increase was recorded in the Rychnov region, with approximately 635 cases of the disease per 100,000 inhabitants per week.