Corona pandemic in the Czech Republic: “We must not repeat the mistakes”

The number of infections is still low, but the delta variant is also spreading in the Czech Republic. The government wants to react in good time, also with stricter entry rules for its own population.

Anyone who set out for the Adriatic Sea last Thursday at the beginning of the Czech summer vacation first had to pass a stress test: three hours of waiting time when entering Croatia, reported the news presenter on Czech television.

Czech Republic tightened entry rules

Because overnight the Croatian government changed the entry regulations. The border officials now asked for proof of vaccination or a negative corona test. Prague reacted angrily, but then announced a tightening of the travel rules itself. When vacationers return, they face the same procedure at home.

If you want to enter the Czech Republic, you have to prove a double vaccination, whereby the second vaccination must be at least two weeks ago. Otherwise, a Covid test is due. “The corona situation is stagnating here,” says Adam Vojtech, who has recently become Minister of Health again. “In Prague it is even getting worse, even if the absolute numbers are still low. We are also observing the spread of the delta variant.” Therefore one has to react to this situation.

Entry bans and quarantine requirements

There should be no area-wide border controls. But at the airports it should be ensured that the new regulations are adhered to. For tourists and returnees from some countries such as Spain, a two-week quarantine always applies. You can test yourself free after five days at the earliest. Tourists from Russia, South Africa, Tunisia and other countries are no longer allowed to enter the Czech Republic.

In the country itself, a corona test is also required in restaurants and at events, unless the person concerned has been vaccinated twice or has recovered. And the government also wants to hold employers accountable. Returnees should not even be allowed to go to their workplaces if they have not been fully vaccinated or tested.

With mobile vaccination teams against the Delta variant

As for the vaccination campaign, the entry threshold is to be lowered. “We are changing the strategy insofar as we are going with new vaccination centers where the people are: in the companies, in the shopping centers and the train stations,” says Health Minister Vojtech. “There will be mobile teams everywhere.”

The pilot project is scheduled to start in Prague in about a week. Such teams are planned for the whole country later. Because the rush to the large vaccination centers has decreased, which is why children and young people between the ages of twelve and 15 can now register.

About 30 percent of Czechs have been vaccinated twice, mostly the older ones. So far, however, the younger ones have hardly been protected. It is not yet possible to correctly assess the consequences of a fourth wave of infections with the delta variant.

“We’re late again”

In any case, the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has sworn the population not to make the same mistakes again as last year. “Last year in June it seemed to us that we would have triumphed over the pandemic. Some even celebrated it ahead of time,” said Babis. “We mustn’t repeat the mistakes made last summer. We have to be particularly careful with the new mutations.”

Libor Grubhoffer, a biologist from the Academy of Sciences, says, however, that the government missed the right time this time too. The delta variant is already in the country. “I think it didn’t work out again. We’re two or three weeks late again, maybe a month too late,” says Grubhoffer.