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Around 88 percent of Czechs are feeling the bite of inflation and the energy crisis, according to a poll conducted by the STEM/MARK agency. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they had started economizing mainly by not eating out so often, not shopping for new clothes, cutting back on transport costs and limiting car journeys. A third of respondents said they had registered the cost increase, but have not yet started economizing.

ANO party leader Andrej Babiš has confirmed that he will run for president in the January 2023 election. Speaking to TV NOVA on Sunday evening Mr. Babiš said the government’s inaction at a time of crisis had led him to accept the challenge. He said he would ask the party leadership to officially support his candidacy on Monday. Mr. Babiš was earlier considered to be one of the hot favourites for the post but in recent weeks opinion polls indicate that public support for him has waned. His biggest rivals for the top post will be General Petr Pavel and former university rector Danuše Nerudová.

The living and subsistence minimum benefits in Czechia will increase by five to six percent from January, Labour Minister Marian Jurečka said on Czech Television on Sunday. The ministry plans to determine the exact figure based on the Czech Statistical Office's data on inflation for October. The living and subsistence minimum is the socially recognised minimum level of income for food and other basic needs required for survival. Minister Jurečka further urged Czechs who are having problems making ends meet due to the energy crunch and soaring inflation not to be ashamed to ask for government aid. He said the state expected to collect CZK 70 to 100 billion in taxes on windfall profits and levies on electricity production, which it wants to use to help the socially weaker groups of the population survive the energy crunch.

The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Czechia between January and September of this year was about 18 percent higher than in the same period last year, the National Institute of Health reported. Health officials have recorded 221 cases of HIV so far this year. More than half of the positive cases registered  are foreign nationals. There are moreover another 511 HIV positive persons, including children, among the Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Czechia since the war started. These cases are registered separately. Most of them knew about their condition and are receiving treatment.