BREAKING: Czech government likely to impose nationwide quarantine over coronavirus

Prague, March 15 (CTK) – Czechia has 231 coronavirus cases at the moment, compared with 214 in the morning today, PM Babis said in an interview with Prima TV, adding that he expects their number to cross 300 today and that the cabinet is likely to impose quarantine nationwide at its afternoon meeting.

Saturday saw the record high daily increase in the number of infected people, with 39 new cases being registered. Their number has further risen by 42 since Saturday evening.

Thirty-one patients are staying in hospitals. Some of them feel well and have no symptoms but they are still not virus-free and cannot be released, Babis said.

The condition of all patients is good, except for two taxi drivers from Prague, one of whom has been hospitalised in Prague’s Bulovka hospital for several days now and the other since recently. He was transferred to Prague’s General Teaching Hospital’s (VFN) intensive care unit at night in a very serious condition.

The latter patient has been connected to a heart-lung bypass, the former to a ventilator, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) said later today.

Neither of them has a travel anamnesis, which means they are community transmission cases, Vojtech said.

The course of the disease is mild in most patients in Czechia, he emphasised.

Speaking about the plan to impose quarantine across the country, Babis (ANO) said it is important that people move nowhere else but only go to work and back home.

He said he does not expect the cabinet to restrict public transport. On the contrary, he spoke about its reinforcement.

Babis said his daughter Vivien has returned from Spain and wanted to have herself tested.

“I told her: ‘You won’t have yourself tested. You will be waiting at home for 14 days. Then we will see and the testing may follow’. The people [returning from abroad] do not understand that they must stay in quarantine,” Babis said.

He said he has preventively separated himself from his family.