Czech Health Minister: 'Don’t travel between regions and stay home if possible'

Health Minister Jan Blatný said Thursday afternoon that COVID-19 pandemic measures have stopped working in the Czech Republic, and he urged people not to travel between regions.

Blatný said failure of measures to stop coronavirus proves that the British virus mutation is spreading. He made his remarks at a hospital in Cheb, which been facing a critical shortage of beds COVID-19 patients.

People failing to observe the measures is the reason why they must be constantly extended. One day of violating the anti-coronavirus restrictions may lead to their prolongation by up to one week, he added. Currently, the Czech Republic is on the fifth and highest level of restrictions under the PES system.

“Many hospitals are on the verge of [not being able to provide] urgent care. If we really do not start observing the anti-epidemic measures, hospitals will no longer be able to provide even basic care,” Blatný said.

People should not travel across the country, should meet others as little as possible, and wear nose and mouth protective means, he said. Respirators are preferable to simple cloth masks, he added.

“Whatever one might think of the epidemic, it is here. We will not influence it by politics, but only by our behavior,” Blatný said.

Blatný pointed out that any other hospital in the country could find itself in the same situation as the Cheb hospital. “That's why we need to do everything much more than before to work together to prevent the spread of the disease,” he said.

However, it is not yet necessary yet to transport COVID patients from the Czech borderland to the neighboring Germany as only a few people could be brought there, Blatný said.

The problems in the Karlovy Vary region, where Cheb is located, are caused not only by the overloading of the Cheb hospital but also by a difficult situation in the entire region, Blatný said.

“We regularly talks with consuls and the leadership of federal states, but currently, the capacity of German hospitals resembles ours a lot and in some parts, it is even more overburdened than in the Czech Republic. Therefore a transport of a few patients would not solve the situation of the local hospital, because tens of patients need to be transported,” Blatný said.

Deputy Health Minister Vladimír Černý said during the visit to Cheb that the Czech Republic is considering the purchase of Bamlanivimab, a COVID-19 antibody-based drug, from the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. It aims at reducing the viral load in the body and thus prevents a serious condition of the disease from developing.

There are over 5,811 infected people in hospitals, of which about 1,000 are in serious condition.