Coronavirus update, May 3, 2021: Czech Republic sees nationwide relaxation of some restrictions today

Hairdressers and other establishments associated with body and animal care can open today in the Czech Republic. In addition, in the regions with the lowest infection rates –Prague, Hradec Králové, Plzeň, Karlovy Vary, Central Bohemia, Liberec and Pardubice –students in the upper grades of elementary school are returning to the classes in rotation. Galleries and museums in those regions can also open, under strict rules. The number of regions where all children can go to kindergartens without masks or Covid testing will increase from three to seven. All stores and services in the Czech Republic will be able to open on May 10, regardless of the development of the epidemic, the government decided on Thursday.

The rules for children's clubs and activities with will be discussed by the government at its regular Monday meeting. The cabinet should also issue a resolution stating that testing in companies and offices will continue throughout June. According to the Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček, the government agreed on Thursday to continue testing, and the final resolution should be issued today. Employees going to work in person will have to take tests once a week. The cabinet will also decide whether to enter into proceedings before the Constitutional Court concerning the repeal of parts of the Pandemic Act.

The high-capacity Covid-19 vaccination center in the O2 universum arena in Prague’s Vysočany district will open today. It will have a capacity of up to 7,000 a day, though previously it was announced the capacity would be 10,000 a day. Prague's Central Military Hospital at the end of February signed a lease on the facility until the end on July. Originally, full operation was supposed to have started on April 11 but was delayed due to the lack of vaccines. Instead, the center began operating in a test mode on April 9, vaccinating members of the army, police, and paramedics. Prague also runs a smaller vaccination center in the Congress Centre in Vyšehrad.

High-capacity Covid-19 vaccination centers opened in some Czech regions are not fully used due to the lack of vaccines, and some are running at only 50 percent. There are three such centers in the Zlín region. It expects to limit their operation as soon as a majority of inhabitants are inoculated. Vaccination will then return to hospitals and small healthcare facilities and will continue in the GPs' offices. The Ústí nad Labem has chosen a similar strategy, planning four high-capacity vaccination centers. The region will open the biggest one in a former university complex today. As soon as it has enough vaccine doses, the center will be able to vaccinate up to 2,000 people a day. The center in Plzeň, which has the capacity of 1,200 people a days, is vaccinating from only from Thursday to Sunday.

There were 504 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, in a week-on-week comparison about 320 fewer and the lowest daily increase since last Sept. 6, according to Health Ministry data. Health workers vaccinated 19,796 people against coronavirus on Sunday, an increase of about 1,400 over the previous Sunday. Since the end of last year, healthcare professionals have administered 3.2 million doses of the vaccine, with 1.012 million people fully vaccinated. The reproduction number, indicating how many other people are infected by one person who tested positive, has risen to 0.89 from 0.88, but it is still been below the break-even value of 1.0 for 19 consecutive days.