Health minister: Covid situation improving, new evaluation system being prepared

The coronavirus situation in the Czech Republic is starting to improve, according to the new Minister of Health Petr Arenberger. He told journalists on Friday that a completely new system for evaluating the severity of the epidemic is being prepared to replace the current PES method. Mr. Arenberger said that the new system should be ready in two weeks time and that it will draw from combined expertise of epidemiologists, industrialists and other key groups.

The PES counter-epidemic system was put in place by Mr. Arenberger’s predecessor, Jan Blatný, in November 2020. It was based on a threat level ranging from 0-100 points. However, the government stopped using the PES system as a guide in February, after it became clear that the far more infectious “British” mutation of COVID-19 had spread massively within the country.