News

Tests detected 121 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, meaning that the total number of infections has crossed 20,000 since the virus was first detected in the country, Health Ministry data shows. Currently 5,816 people are fighting the coronavirus, while nearly 70 percent of past patients have fully recovered.

More than a quarter of all cases have been detected in the Moravian-Silesian Region, where the virus rampage has been most serious. Prague comes in second with 4,367 cases in total, followed by the Central Bohemian Region, where 2,277 people have so far been infected with COVID-19.

Temperatures are expected to hover around 27 degrees Celsius on Monday. Meteorologists say rain is likely over much of the central and western parts of the Czech Republic, with the possibility of storms around Plzeň.

The European Union must encourage Belarusians, so that they do not fear to realise a velvet revolution of the type that happened [in Czechoslovakia] in 1989, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš tweeted on Sunday. He wrote that the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia) as well as the Baltic states have to “play their role”. The Czech PM will reveal further details about what he means by this in a video this evening that will be shared on social media.

Mr. Babiš also wrote on Twitter that a repeat of what happened in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Warsaw Pact troops quelled the Prague Spring, must not take place in Belarus, possibly reacting to speculation that Russia may intervene in support of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is the target of ongoing protests in the country.

The Czech Prime Minister told the Czech News Agency that his government will not be looking into the situation in Belarus at its regular Monday meeting. This subject, he said, is being discussed on the European level.

A third of working Czechs have seen  their income fall since the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic first appeared in the country, a survey conducted by the agency STEM/MARK on behalf of consulting firm Ernst and Young shows. A quarter of respondents, questioned between June and July, said that their lives have changed fundamentally due to the coronavirus, but 69 percent said that they are not experiencing severe difficulties.

More than a half of respondents said that they are now more watchful about their personal hygiene and 35 percent said that they have had to limit or cut spending on leisure activities such as holidays, or the purchasing of expensive products.