Coronavirus update, March 24, 2021: PES index drops to third degree after 108 days

The PES index decreased to 59 points on a 0-100 scale, reaching the third out of five epidemic alert degrees after 108 days, according to Health Ministry data. Until today, the index has not been in the third degree since Dec. 5, 2020. It had been in the fourth degree since March 9. At first, the PES index, introduced as of late November, was to guide the measures against the spread of coronavirus, but its value is no longer relevant for this, while the capacity of hospitals is the main indicator now. Chief public health officer Pavla Svrčinová is currently preparing a new form of the PES system.

Priority registration of Czech school employees for the Covid-19 vaccination ends on March 28, Education Minister Robert Plaga told school principals in a letter. He asked principals to give the material and special codes for vaccination registration to those who have not received them yet and have expressed interest in the vaccination against Covid-19. So far, teachers and other school employees aged over 55 should be inoculated preferentially along with those working in the still-open schools. However, other teachers have been vaccinated as well. Teachers and other school staff have been able to register for the Covid-19 vaccination since Feb. 27. As of March 22, 179,000 school employees have registered for the vaccination and 86,519 of them have already received the first vaccine dose.

The junior government Social Democrat (ČSSD) MPs will support the cabinet's request for a 30-day extension of the state of emergency over the Covid epidemic, but they would also back a shorter prolongation if it makes sense, ČSSD deputy chairman Ondřej Veselý said. If the epidemic keeps slowing down, children might return to school as of mid-April, while shops and services might reopen in May, he said. The government will ask the Chamber of Deputies to extend the state of emergency until April 27. Otherwise, it would expire on March 28. The minority ANO-ČSSD cabinet has not managed to negotiate support for the prolongation of the state of emergency in the lower house yet.

The Czech government ordered 81.1 percent of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine doses it was entitled to from the European Commission, so the country is to be able to inoculate 44 percent of its adult population by the end of June, news server iHNed.cz reported. Only Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, and Latvia will have vaccines for a lower share of their population, the server stated. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš categorically rejected the information as untrue. He told Radio Z that a sufficient amount of vaccines had been ordered. Health Minister Jan Blatný tweeted that as soon as he became the minister in late October last year, he increased the supplies of the Covid vaccines. "We have eight million doses more commissioned now than last autumn, 26 million in total. Like other European countries, we are pushing on the producers to deliver the vaccines as soon as possible," he wrote.

Over 71,900 people in the Czech Republic were sent to Covid quarantine, while nearly 66,400 people ended up in isolation with confirmed Covid-19 infection in the first three weeks in March, according to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. The March numbers so far are similar to those for the whole of January and of February. The reasons might be both higher sick pay for Covid infected and rapid coronavirus spread. According to the data from the Czech Social Security Administration, roughly 44,300 people were in quarantine on Monday. The so far highest figure for March was 51,900 people isolated or quarantined on March 12.

There were 10,883 new Covid cases on Tuesday, about 3,100 less than last week. The reproduction number R dropped from 0.85 to 0.82, its lowest level since Jan. 19. The number indicates says how many people get infected from one person who tested positive for Covid on average. Healthcare professionals gave out 36,230 doses of the Covid vaccine, about 12,000 fewer than a week ago. Some 1,033,273 people now having at least one dose of the vaccine. There are currently 8,402 Covid patients in hospitals, with 1,890 hospitalized are in serious condition. Compared to the previous week, the number of hospitalized decreased by about 900 cases.