Coronavirus update, Oct. 6, 2021: New covid cases top 1,000 for the first time since May

The Czech Health Ministry does not plan to change, tighten, or mitigate anti-coronavirus measures in the near future, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch said on Tuesday. Czech Television, citing chief hygienist Pavla Svrčinová, had reported that in the second half of the week, the Health Ministry would discuss a possible tightening of measures. Vojtěch, however, announced that the current anti-epidemic measures will be maintained. Although the daily number of new infections has been increasing since mid-August, according to Vojtěch, these are still gradual increases. Currently, about 800 to 1,100 people are infected on a normal working day.

As many as 2,000 new cases of coronavirus a day may occur in the Czech Republic by the end of October, Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS) director Ladislav Dušek said. On Tuesday, there were over 1,000 new cases reported. By the end of the month, around 500 Covid patients may be hospitalized, and there may be 30 new ones a day. Currently, there are 267 Covid cases hospitalized, and 47 of them in serious condition. The prediction is based on the realistic model out of the three scenarios that forecast neither a high vaccination rate nor a worse coronavirus mutation.

However, there is a growing number of older people, including the elderly, among the infected. A large portion of them are protected by vaccination against a serious course of the disease, he added. There is also a growing number of cases in which the infection develops in people with complete vaccination, especially in the elderly and chronically ill. They account for about 20–25 percent of the new cases. Out of the patients at intensive care units, 95 percent of them are non-vaccinated. The remaining 5 percent are either very seriously ill or very old people, Dušek said.

Voting in this year's elections to the Chamber of Deputies begins today for people in quarantine or isolation due to coronavirus, who can take the opportunity to vote from their car. They have to go to one of 82 designated locations according to their place of residence. It is not clear from state statistics how many adults are in quarantine and isolation in the Czech Republic. According to the Czech Social Security Administration and the Ministry of Health, Covid-19 currently affects a total of 7,900 people, and 2,223 employees and self-employed persons who pay for health insurance are in quarantine with disability benefits.

According to data from long-term wastewater monitoring, 3,000 to 5,000 people infected with Covid were in Prague in the second half of September, the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (VŠCHT) said in a press release. They stated that as of Sept. 27, the Health Ministry counted 1,173 infected people in Prague. According to VŠCHT experts, it is necessary to increase the intensity of testing.

Jan Bartáček from the Institute of Water Technology and VŠCHT said the number of people infected in the second half of September approached the numbers recorded in mid-April this year, when around 5,000 positive people were registered in Prague, or about 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. According to current official data, there have been 69 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days in Prague, and infection has been confirmed in over 800 people.

The daily number of new Coronavirus cases exceeded 1,000 for the first time since May 18. On Tuesday laboratories reported 1,108 new cases, up from 802 a day earlier and 473 last week. The reproduction number indicating the number of infected from one positive tested person increased slightly to 1.33 from the previous 1.31. The incidence number of new cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days rose to 49 from 43 a day earlier. No deaths were reported for Tuesday, but Monday’s figure was updated to three. The toll for October is now at nine.

There were 267 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals on Tuesday, about 10 fewer than on Monday, but about 40 more than a week ago. Some 47 are in serious condition. Compared to last autumn, the numbers of newly infected and hospitalized are significantly lower. A year ago, at the beginning of October, there were about 3,000 cases a day and there were around 1,500 people in the hospital with Covid-19. For Prague, the incidence number is 69 and the R number is at 1.25.

Source: onemocneni-aktualne.mzcr.cz/covid-19