Coronavirus update, July 16, 2021: Covid incidence up 50 percent in young people as Delta variant takes over

Dušek said the reproduction number R is about 1.4 now. In Czech regions where there was low coronavirus incidence until now, the R is higher, he said. On average, there are about 240 new cases per day and their number increases by about one-third every week. If the number of cases is relatively high, the threat is than the more risky category of elderly people will catch coronavirus from the young in the autumn, Dušek said. He said the current situation cannot be compared with the beginning of this year when the epidemic culminated in the country or with last autumn when it started rapidly spreading. The situation is different as a big part of the population has been vaccinated and so there is almost no pressure exerted on hospitals and the virus is spreading among young people, Dusek said.

There is an about 50-percent increase in the incidence of coronavirus in the past 14 days among teenagers. Among children aged from 13 to 15, the incidence grew by 48 percent, among youths aged from 16 to 19 it grew by 53 percent, and among people in their 20s by 46 percent. The average number of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks is 15.5 in the Czech Republic, but this incidence is nearly 10 times higher among young people in Prague, and the situation is similar in Central Bohemia and the Plzeň region, Czech Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS) director Ladislav Dušek said. Young adults have more social contacts than other people and only roughly 20 percent of them are vaccinated, he said.

Czech Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS) models assume that about 25 to 30 percent of the population may still get the virus because they have not caught it yet and they have not been fully vaccinated. The model that expects the spread of the Delta variant and weaker protection of the vaccinated against the disease may mean that there will be up to 1,000 or 2,000 new cases per day in late August. "This alone need not be a risk for hospitals, but the risk among vulnerable people would not be negligible then anymore," ÚZIS director Ladislav Dušek said.

He said vaccination eliminates especially serious cases of the illness when people need to be treated in hospital. He called on young and healthy to get vaccinated so collective immunity should be developed. For the Delta variant of the virus, collective immunity should be formed only when roughly 85 percent of the population is vaccinated, and currently less than 40 percent of society is fully vaccinated. About 60 percent of Czech adults have received at least one vaccine dose. See our full story here.

The special session of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, called at the impulse of a part of opposition lawmakers to debate the Covid epidemic was suspended as too few deputies arrived at the session. As a result, the lower house did not finish its debate even about the first point on the agenda, which related to the investigating commission for the coronavirus crisis. On Friday, the last regular session before the summer recess continues with its last day. The special session ended after Zdeněk Ondráček (Communists, KSČM) proposed its suspension until the arrival of Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats, ČSSD). However, there was not the sufficient number of the lawmakers to enable the vote in the Chamber of Deputies. The chair, Tomáš Hanzel (ČSSD), eventually interrupted the session. It is not clear when it will resume.

Slovakia will still require quarantine from the travelers who are not Covid-vaccinated, Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský said yesterday, adding that the relevant directive will be modified now that the Constitutional Court suspended it over its exempting of those with one vaccine dose only. People with only the first jab will no longer be exempted from the arrival quarantine duty, Lengvarský said. Issued by the chief public health officer last week, the directive met with protests of people on the border with the Czech Republic. The authorities are going to draft its amended version, Lengvarský said.

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People who have problems downloading electronic certificate proving vaccination or test results should first contact the vaccination or test site, Milan Bláha, deputy director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS), said. Certificates can be downloaded from the ÚZIS website since June 1, and 6.5 million have been created so far. "The most common problems are in the wrong contact details. Another case is that the provider reports to patients the result under the wrong birth number or insurance number," he explained. Overall, according to him, the number of complaints is relatively low.

According to the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 people in the last 14 days, the worst situation in the European Union remains in Cyprus (1,068 cases, 493 cases a week ago). The second-most affected country is Spain (377 cases, third a week ago with 215), followed by Portugal (333 cases, second a week ago wth 241 cases). The Czech Republic was the worst from the beginning of February to mid-March. The number of cases is growing slightly, with almost 24 cases per 100,000 over 14 days. This puts it in 18th place; a week ago it was in 17th place with 18 cases, according to data from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).

The number of new Covid cases on Thursday was 227, down from the previous day’s 263 and also down from last week’s 249. The number of hospitalized people increased by one to 28. No Covid-related deaths were reported, and only four deaths have been recorded in July. The nationwide index number of new cases per 100,000 people over seven days dropped slightly from 15.47 to 15,27. The reproduction number R dropped slightly from 1.30 to 1.25, but it is still over 1.0, which means the pandemic is spreading. For Prague, the index number dropped from 41.20 to 40.97. The R number for Prague rose from 1.13 to 1.15.