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08/18/2020
This year’s edition of Prague’s Letní Letná festival of new circus and theatre gets underway on Tuesday with a performance by a troupe of Spanish acrobats. In view of the coronavirus situation, the organisers have dubbed the 2020 Letní Letná, which has a scaled back programme, a “light” version of the festival. Indoor performances are limited to 500 viewers, who must wear facemasks, while social distancing will be observed at outdoor shows. The event runs for one week.
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08/18/2020
When Czech schools reopen they will follow a four-level “traffic light” system operated by the Ministry of Health when it comes to coronavirus measures, the minister of education, Robert Plaga, said on Tuesday. The country’s schools will all observe heightened hygiene standards when they start again on September 1, he said.
The minister of health, Adam Vojtěch, said schools would close if their districts were designated “red”, indicating a high degree of coronavirus risk on a national map.
The country’s top hygiene officer, Jarmila Rážová, said schools would not automatically close if one case of Covid-19 were detected.
Instructions on how to respond to the coronavirus situation are now being sent to all school principals.
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08/18/2020
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said following Tuesday morning’s National Security Council meeting devoted to Belarus that a unified EU approach is needed, and he sees no reason now for individual Czech sanctions against Lukashenko regime officials.
Babiš said the European Commission is now preparing a list of Belarusian officials who would be subject to EU sanctions that should be ready by Friday.
Ahead of Wednesday’s extraordinary meeting of EU heads of government and state, the prime ministers of the Visegrad Four countries (Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary) and the Baltic countries will have a video conference. Babiš said the V4 leaders already have a unified approach how to proceed.
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08/18/2020
The lower house of Parliament is convening on Wednesday for an extraordinary session to discuss government-proposed legislation related to the coronavirus epidemic and state of emergencies.
The first is a special draft law providing special measures for people in quarantine to cast votes in the October senate and regional elections. It would only apply to people ordered by a hygiene authority or doctor to quarantine during the election.
The second is an amendment to the Education Act introducing distance-learning standards and making students’ participation in it a part of existing compulsory school attendance law.
Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO) says the law should come into force at the start of the school year so school principals "will not operate in a legal vacuum". Heads of schools are due to receive guidelines in the coming days.
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08/17/2020
Minister of Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček has said the Czech Security Council on Tuesday will discuss how to shape a common European Union position regarding Belarusian President Alexandr Lukashenko’s crackdown against peaceful protesters.
Petříček (Social Democrats) stressed that the Czech Republic wants to spur a political dialogue and take action in support of Belarusian citizens and civil society “who have the right to decide on the future of Belarus”, alluding to contested presidential election results.
Earlier, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats) said that he would prefer EU sanctions be applied against the Lukashenko regime, but should their implementation take too long, the Czech Republic should be ready to unilaterally.
Lukashenko is often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictator’. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said at the weekend the EU must encourage Belarusians not to be afraid of carrying out their own “Velvet Revolution”.
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08/17/2020
Police have launched a criminal investigation against a man from Ostrava in connection with a racist article he wrote following a fire deliberately set in a Bohumín apartment block that killed 11 people, including 3 children.
In the article published on the Vlastenecké noviny (‘Patriotic News’) portal a day after the on 8 August tragedy, entitled “Eleven fewer cikáni” [Gypsies], the man stated erroneously that the alleged perpetrator and all victims were Roma, whom he referred to as “parasites”.
An analytical team of the opposition Pirate Party, in collaboration with the ROMEA organization, mapped what it called the most brutal, insidious online commentaries, and filed complaints against numerous unidentified perpetrators.
ROMEA said there are grounds to suspect that offences including felony incitement to hatred, approval of a criminal act and defamation of a nation were committed.
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08/17/2020
As of September, it will once again be mandatory in the Czech Republic to wear facemasks when in public indoor spaces, including schools, and when using public transport, Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch (for ANO) told reporters on Monday.
Speaking following a meeting of the Government Council for Health Risks, Vojtěch said the measures will also apply to indoor events, regardless of the number of participants. He said the measures aim to prevent an uptick in coronavirus cases when schools reopen after the summer holiday.
Vojtěch said teachers and schoolchildren will be required to have to wear facemasks in the common areas of schools, such as in corridors, but not during instruction in individual classes. Currently facemasks are required on the metro, for example, but not on trams.
At the same time, the mandatory Covid-19 quarantine period will been shortened to 10 days from the current 14 as of September, epidemiologist Roman Prymula has confirmed.
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08/17/2020
Organisers of the annual Czech Press Photo contest have announced they will accept entries throughout September, as usual. But the awards ceremony has been postponed until December and will take place at the National Museum.
Prizes will be awarded to photographers in seven categories: News, Reportage, Everyday Life, Art and Culture, Sport, Portraiture, Humanity and the Environment.
The jury comprises Joe Klamar of Agence France-Presse, Nicole Tung of the US, Australian photographer Christopher McGrath of Getty Images, Czech photographer Herbert Slavík and head of the ČTK photo bank Petr Mlch.
The now-traditional Prague Grant, a year-long creative scholarship awarded by City Hall for capturing transformations of the Czech capital, has become a kind of a “second main prize” in the contest. The grant is awarded by the Mayor of Prague in person.
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08/17/2020
Occasional rain is in the forecast for Tuesday throughout much of the country. Daytime highs should range from 21 to 24 degrees Celsius.
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08/17/2020
Czech professional football teams will no longer be required to quarantine all members of a club if a single player tests positive for coronavirus. This follows from an agreement between the Czech Football League and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO).
However, under the agreement, teams now must be tested for Covid-19 ahead of every match. The agreement came on the heels of a new case hitting the Slavia Prague club last week, which forced the two-time defending national champions to suspend their training camp in Austria.
The resumed Czech football league season was officially abandoned in the third week of July after a positive coronavirus case forced quarantine at an Opava club battling relegation. Slavia Prague had already clinched the title and Plzen, Sparta Prague, Jablonec and Liberec locked up European places.
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