Roman Prymula, the government’s representative for science and research in healthcare and epidemiologist, expects the Czech Republic to register from 6000 to 8000 cases a day soon. He states that it is necessary to declare a state of emergency.
According to data, the reproduction number, which is supposed to tell how many people can get infected from one person, is close to 1.8. The last weeks’ number was 1.5. Prymula offers to close schools, especially in Prague when the reproduction number reaches 2. However, it is not necessary to limit the first-grade children since they don’t catch the infection as fast as other pupils.
“It’s not a disaster, but it’s a state of crisis that needs to be significantly slowed down,” Prymula stated. He offers to limit mass events with tighter measures. He adds that sports matches, for example, can be organized without spectators the same as in the other European countries.
Adam Vojtěch, the Minister of Health, doesn’t think that the state emergency is required at this stage. However, it will be discussed by a cabinet at the special meeting this Monday. Jan Hamáček, Deputy Prime Minister, also agrees that the state of emergency isn’t a solution for now. Also, Jarmila Rážová, the chief hygienist of the Czech Republic, explained that closing the schools is not that important currently and she will consider this only as the final stage.
Vladimír Černý, chairman of the Czech Society of Anesthesiology of Resuscitation and Intensive Care, thinks that if Czech Republic ends up having a thousand more COVID-19 infected in a serious condition, the hospital’s capacity might not be enough. Hospital’s departments will have to reprofile themselves for COVID-19 patients and reduce the number of patients with other serious diseases. He considers that this can happen by the end of next week. According to Černý, the situation with the capacity in Prague and the South Moravian region is worse than in other districts.
