Prague, April 19 (CTK) – The blanket testing of the Czech population for the new coronavirus is to begin on Wednesday, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch (for ANO) told Czech Radio (CRo) today.
The testing will take place in Prague, southern Moravia, the Litoměřice district in northern Bohemia, and the Litovel district in central Moravia.
The aim of the blanket testing is to find out how many infected people there are among the Czech population.
Vojtěch said the testing will be presented at a press conference on Tuesday.
Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula said previously that up to 28,000 people should be tested within the study.
Prymula mentioned a possible blanket testing in early April. The representative sample of the population would be created in a way similar to the selection of respondents of opinion polls.
Blanket testing for coronavirus was carried out in some homes for the elderly. The South Moravian Region started blanket testing of homeless people.
Some firms preventively test their foreign workers, for example the Unipetrol oil-processing company.
There have been recorded 6,654 COVID-19 cases 1,298 recoveries and 186 deaths in the Czech Republic so far.