On Monday, the Czech government decided to extend the state of emergency by another 30 days, meaning it will last till December 20. Now all is left to make the extension official is the consent of the Chamber of Deputies.
Originally, the state of emergency, introduced on the October 5th, was supposed to expire on the 20th November, but it was widely speculated that the government will decide to extend it. The Czech Republic remains in the fifth, worst category of the epidemiological risk according to the newly introduced PES system despite the lowering number of cases.
PES assesses the epidemiological risk, taking into account such factors as the number of tests carried in relation to the number of positive tests returned, the R0 number, the number of infected per 100,000 people over the last 14 days, and the number of the elderly infected over the last 14 days.
The decision was made based on Jan Blatný’s recommendation and now will await the decision of the Chamber of Deputies. The state of emergency allows the government to introduce severe restrictions even if those violate the law. Shall the state of emergency be lifted, many of the current measures will be abolished.
“Indeed, at least some of the measures awaiting to be taken require restrictions. If we want to introduce them across the board, we must extend the state of emergency,” said Blatný, Novinky.cz reports.
It is, however, possible that the state of emergency will be extended but not for as long as the government wishes. The Chamber of Deputies should make their decision on Thursday.
