Czech Health Ministry to release daily regional COVID-19 risk map from July 1

Prague, June 29 (CTK) – The Czech Health Ministry will release a map of risk regions in the country every day as of July and the number of new positive coronavirus test results only once a day, Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS) director Ladislav Dušek told a press conference today.

The ministry will assess the increase in the numbers of people infected with COVID-19 and those being treated in hospitals, and other trends in the last day and last week.

“The general epidemiological situation is very good, the infection does not spread through the country in an uncontrolled way. All increases are connected with known localities,” Dušek said.

More than 11,600 people were infected with COVID-19 since March 1. On Saturday, the daily number of new coronavirus cases steeply increased to 260. On Sunday, it was 305, which has been the highest since April 3. The biggest risk of infection is in the Karvina and Frydek-Mistek and Ostrava-city districts, all in northern Moravia.

The map of risk of COVID-19 infection uses a ten-point scale and colors. Zero (white) is no coronavirus cases, one to three (grey) are districts with low risk of infection, four to six (orange) are districts with risk of community spread and increasing number of new cases. On Saturday, the three above-mentioned districts in the Moravia-Silesia Region were put in this category.

Red color, or seven and eight on the scale, means community spread of the virus with a negative trend and a risk of infection for threatened groups of the population. Black, or nine and ten on the scale, means the highest risk, including a growing number of hospitalizations.

In retrospective, the system assessed the Ostrava district, Prague and the Domazlice district as red in early April. Prague was labelled black on March 27. At present, Prague is assessed as three, Frydek-Mistek as four and Karvina and Ostrava-city as six.

“The system is not a dogma. It cannot take into account absolutely all aspects that we monitor,” said epidemiologist Rastislav Maďar, coordinator of the Health Ministry working group for the loosening of the lockdown measures. “If the situation worsens, we will go back the way we went when the measures were loosened,” he said.

Dušek said the ministry will release the map of risk regions and data on newly confirmed infections around 17:00.