Face mask wearing reinstated in coronavirus stricken Moravian-Silesian Region

The wearing of face masks in public transport and interior spaces is now compulsory across the Moravian-Silesian Region, the regional hygienist office announced on Friday. Hospital and senior home visits are only be possible with a respirator. Meanwhile, public event maximum capacity is capped at 100 people and bars, restaurants have to be closed between 11pm to 8am. Cross-border workers are required to take a negative COVID-19 test every two weeks.

The most significant coronavirus outbreak in the country has been going on for several weeks in the region’s north-eastern Karviná district, where these measures were already put into effect earlier. The director of the regional epidemiological office, Irena Martinková, said the expansion of these measures across the region was a result of the virus spreading from Karviná into other parts. The situation in Karviná itself is stabilised, she said.

The decision was heavily criticised by regional governor Ivo Vondrák, who used the phrase "about us without us" that is often used in relation to the Munich Agreement of 1938, when Europe's great powers agreed to cede the Sudetenland to Germany without consulting Czechoslovakia. He told news site denikn.cz that he only found out about the decision by post and does not understand some of the measures. Meanwhile, Zlata Holušová, the director of NEfestival, which was set to replace the annual large-scale Colours of Ostrava festival, likened the decision to martial law and said Nefestival will have to be cancelled.