Government to declare new state of emergency

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said the government will declare a new state of emergency, after the present one expires on February 28. The lower house on Friday rejected the government’s proposal to extend the ongoing state of emergency by another 30 days, due to the fact that the present state of emergency –called at the request of regional governors – was legally questionable.

The lower house approved a law on pandemics on Friday, which will give the Health Ministry exceptional powers, but the government says it is not sufficient to deal with the exceptionally grave coronavirus crisis.