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The Easter holidays appear to have had no effect on the growth of Covid-19 cases in the Czech Republic, according to data from the Institute of Health Information and Statistics presented on Thursday. According to the head of the institute, Jaroslav Dušek, the country can now start a gradual and controlled return to normal life.

The number of people with confirmed coronavirus infection reached 7,136 on Thursday morning, according to data released by the Czech Ministry of Health. 210 people have died and over 2,000 have recovered from the disease. The predictive model suggests there could be around 7,800 coronavirus cases in the country by the end of April.

Jan Hamáček, head of the junior coalition party of Social Democrats, has said the party will defend its position on extending the state of emergency in the country beyond April 30.

He said the state of emergency would allow the government to respond to the country’s needs more swiftly, such as in purchasing protective gear for the state sector centrally, without having to hold an open competition.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Wednesday he was against an extension, arguing that the state of emergency had already served its purpose and the government restrictions were not dependent on it.

However he said the government would take into account the arguments of epidemiologists on the matter before coming to a final decision on whether to ask the lower house for an extension.

The government initially imposed a 30-day state of emergency on March 13 in view of the coronavirus situation. MPs later voted to extend it to the end of April.

The Social Democrats of the ruling coalition have slammed the former Czech president, Václav Klaus, for inciting people to rebel against the government restrictions taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

In an interview for the news site Novinky.cz Klaus said he was alarmed by the restrictions imposed on businesses and freedom of movement, saying that the looming economic recession was, in his view, a much bigger threat than the coronavirus pandemic and someone should lead a public rebellion against the restrictions enforced.

Social Democrat leader Jan Hamáček said Mr. Klaus was acting irresponsibly by speaking as he did and that by downplaying the danger of the pandemic he was acting like the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

Most world leaders are listening to the advice of epidemiologists and treating the matter seriously, Hamáček said.

Starting today, April 22, people who have been placed in quarantine will need to screen negative for the COVID 19 virus before the quarantine can be officially terminated, according to a new regulation passed by the government.

According to the government regulation the tests should be conducted by GPs and can only be performed a fortnight after the quarantine has started. The move is to prevent infected people without symptoms spreading the disease.

However many GPs say they still lack the rapid test kits required and have had to send patients to the nearest hospital for testing.