Coronavirus update, Jan. 13, 2021: large vaccination center to open in Prague’s O2 universum

The PES anti-epidemic system's COVID risk index dropped by three points to 81 out of 100 in the Czech Republic today, the lowest figure since the beginning of this year, as all indicators for its calculation decreased, the Health Ministry's data released this morning show. The country stills stay at the worst, fifth alert degree.

The reproduction (R) number, which shows the average number of the people who are infected from one positively tested person, has dropped from 1.12 to 1.01. If it falls under 1.00, the infection spread will slow down.

In other COVID-related news it was announced that a high-capacity coronavirus vaccination center will be established in the O2 universum multipurpose congress facility in the Prague’s Libeň neighborhood, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who visited the site Tuesday, tweeted.

His adviser and former health minister Roman Prymula told public Czech TV that the center should be put into operation in late January.

The four-story O2 universum with the area of almost 50,000 square meters is adjacent to the giant O2 Arena, and its largest hall has a total capacity of 4,500 people.

Previously, the Health Ministry received the offer to place hospitals for COVID patients in the O2 Arena and the Congress Center Prague, but it was built in pavilions at the Prague-Letňany exhibition grounds eventually.

Along with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which, however, cannot be kept by general practitioners in their offices due to the demanding storage conditions, Astra Zeneca makes up a majority of the vaccine supplies the Czech Republic has bought for 2021.

If the vaccine is approved by the EMA, it will be the third to gain the registration for the EU market, after the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which the EMA conditionally approved on Dec. 21 and Jan. 6.

Right now, some 7,300 healthcare personnel are infected with the novel coronavirus, Czech Medical Chamber (ČLK) President Milan Kubek told journalists.

The Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS) said at the end of last year, there were 6,268 of them and since then, there were roughly another 1,000. Kubek said there were some 1,250 doctors and 3,400 nurses among the infected.

Hospitals are saying the infected health staff are the biggest problem in the care for the COVID-19 infected. Some small, regional health facilities were forced to transport the infected to other regions.

Niedzielski also said Polish public health officers had not recorded any case of the English coronavirus mutation.

Czech Health Ministry Barbora Peterová said the laboratories were proceeding in the way that would detect potential new coronavirus mutations, but this had not happened, SeznamZpravy.cz said.

The National Health Institute (SZÚ) does not know anything about the “Czech coronavirus variant,” mentioned by Niedzielski, either.