Daily news summary
Lowest increase in COVID cases in over three weeks
The number of people with confirmed coronavirus infection reached 5991 on Monday morning, according to data released by the Czech Ministry of Health.
The number of people registered COVID 19 positive rose by 89 on Sunday, the lowest increase since March 17, which saw an increase of 67 cases. 1
39 deaths are reported. Meanwhile, 467 people have recovered from COVID 19. Czech labs have tested over 128,000 people to date.
Repatriation flight from Australia and New Zealand
The last planned repatriation flight for Czechs in Australia and New Zealand will bring home 329 Czechs and 35 other Europeans in the coming days.
The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the longest repatriation flight to date in cooperation with Korean airlines and the Korean Embassy in Prague.
The plane which should arrive in Prague sometime mid-week should bring back 329 Czech nationals, 20 Slovaks, 9 Belgian and 6 Swiss nationals, according to Czech Foreign Ministry sources.
Three-fifths of Czechs feeling the bite of coronavirus restrictions
Almost three fifths of Czechs are feeling the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and related measures, according to the results of a poll conducted by Ušetřeno.cz among 1,800 respondents.
Five per cent of respondents said they had lost their jobs, and 63 percent said they were forced to economize or had financial problems as a result of the restrictions.
26 percent of Czechs are on home office, 22 percent now only work part-time.
One in ten respondents said they were on lower salaries due to nursing care due to the closure of schools and kindergartens.
Czechs mark 70th anniversary of brutal Communist crack-down on religious orders
Czechs are marking the 70th anniversary of the Communist regime’s brutal crackdown on Czechoslovakia’s monasteries and holy orders.
The notorious operation known as Akce K (Operation K) saw the mass incarceration of more than 2,300 monks, a massive seizure of church property and historical artefacts.
On the night of April 13, 1950, the secret police, soldiers and the People’s Militia surrounded 75 Czech and 62 Slovak monasteries. Some clergymen were murdered, others were sent to labour camps or placed in the army.
The Communist regime plundered 429 buildings belonging to male monastic orders, 670 buildings belonging to female orders, some 2,000 works of art, another 2,000 historical artefacts, and a vast number of rare manuscripts and books.
Czech media mark 80th anniversary of Katyn Forest Massacre
The Czech media have been marking the 80th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre of around 22,000 Polish army officers, policemen and members of the intelligentsia by the Soviet security agency NKVD. Most of the executions took place in the Katyn Forest in west Russia.
The news site Aktualne.cz notes that the tragedy had a link to the Czech Republic since among those killed were some 350 people with Czech roots who lived in the Tešín area on the Czech side of the border.
The late professor Mečislav Borák, an expert on the Katyn Massacre spent years tracing their remains.
It was not until 1990 that then president Michail Gorbachov admitted the Soviets responsibility for the massacre.
Meteorologists issue spring freeze warning
Meteorologists have issued a spring freeze warning for the whole country from midnight on Monday to 7am on Wednesday.
Temperatures are expected to drop by around twenty degrees on Monday night, sliding from 23 to -2 degrees in places.
Tuesday night could see them drop to - 4 degrees. Farmers have been warned to try to protect their orchards as far as possible.
Weather forecast
Tuesday should be partly cloudy to overcast with rain or snow showers and day temperatures between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius.
