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New restrictions go into effect on Thursday for Czechs commuting to work in Austria and Germany. They are now required to remain in those countries for at least 21 days. Upon return, they will be quarantined for 14 days.

Czechs working in health, social services and emergency services abroad are not subject to the new rules. But they will need to show proof of such cross-border employment. Violation of such rules is a criminal offence.

Salaries in Austria and Germany are typically far higher, and many Czechs living in border regions had commuted abroad for work on a daily basis before the coronavirus outbreak.

The same rules apply to Czechs working in Slovakia and Poland as before. They must commute at least three times a week in one direction and their place of work must lie within 100 kilometres of the border.

The government has passed a new measure in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic. Namely, that only two people can be out together at once.

While the order came into effect on Tuesday as part of the extension of the quarantine period until April. However, it only came to the awareness of the general public and media after the government informed of the new measure in a press release on Wednesday.

Those excluded from the measure are members of the same household, funeral attendees, or those working and conducting business activities.

Czechs returning from abroad will not go into mass quarantine but instead will be asked to quarantine themselves at home, Health Ministry spokeswoman Gabriela Štěpányová told news site denikn.cz.

The idea of concentrating some of the Czechs who return from Italy during the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic in one place, so as to minimise the risk of the spread, was floated by Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula on Sunday.

However, Ms Štěpányová said that this option is no longer on the table.

Public trust in the government has risen from 65.1 points to 70.1 points in the space of a week, research from the National Pandemic Alarm project shows.

The index numbers rose after the Czech government began with the deliveries of medical equipment to the country and promised to continue to do so as long as it was necessary, sociologist Lucie Vlčková from the Nielsen Admosphere polling agency told news site Seznam Zprávy on Wednesday.

The research also shows that public trust in the Czech government is highest among all of the countries surveyed through the National Pandemic Alarm project. These are Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland.

The Czech Republic also ranked highest in the rate of optimism relating to combating the pandemic, although the pesimism index, based on how Czechs see the COVID-19 outbreak developing, remains at 57.1 percent.