Despite the Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček and the Minister of Health Jan Blatný being optimistic about the grand re-opening on Monday, there is still a lot uncertainty within the government whether that’d be the right move. The Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and the Minister of the Interior Minister Jan Hamáček do not think the situation looks good yet.
It was widely anticipated that the Czech Republic will enter the third degree of PES on Monday, which will mean the re-opening of the restaurants, cafes, services, etc. All these entities would have been able to work with strong regulations. The night curfew would be lifted, as well. Several government representatives already expressed that they are waiting for Monday the 30th to ease the measures.
“Everything is going well and we are preparing for [the mentioned above enterprises] to actually open on Monday. We prepare detailed scenarios for key segments of trade and services. These are the last few days,” Havlíček said, Novinky.cz reports.
Similarly, Jan Blatný also said that he is looking forward to the 30th November.
“We believe that we will soon be able to open these stores,” he said.
However, already on Thursday, the R0 number rose back to 0.96. If it reaches 1, the Czech Republic might actually qualify for the fifth level of danger rather than entering the desired third. The Prime Minister Andrej Babiš also expressed concerns suggesting that the situation is far from looking good yet.
“It still doesn’t look good. The numbers are not falling according to plan, ” Babiš said.
On Sunday, the government officials will meet during the urgent conference to discuss the developments with the epidemiologists and other health experts. On the same day, they will decide whether the Czech Republic meets the conditions to enter the third degree of PES or it’s better to wait it out for – at least – another week.
