The Czech government should draw up plans to distribute tens of millions of masks and FFP2 respirators, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Thursday. According to iDnes, Babiš intends to discuss in a government meeting on Monday how this plan can be executed. The intention is to distribute masks mostly to the senior citizen population.
“Respirators are especially important for the older people, masks are to mainly protect those around them,” said Babiš to Radio Impuls.
Jan Hamáček, the chairman of the Social Democrats (CSSD), ANO’s coalition partner, is likely to back the PM’s proposal. “The Ministry of the Interior has provided 70 million veils. We are ready to distribute them at any time according to the government’s instructions,” he said to iDnes.
The government has also approved the plan to distribute 5000 crowns to seniors and the disabled, sometime in December before Christmas, which will cost the state budget an additional 15 billion crowns.
The plan comes amid a worsening spread of the virus throughout the country, however the PM has stated the situation is not out of control. On Wednesday, 650 people were confirmed infected throughout the country. The health minister, Adam Vojtěch, is also currently in quarantine due to an outbreak among certain government officials in the health ministry. The most infected regions of the country are Prague, Hodonín, and Frýdek-Místek.
