Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for July 6, 2021

Czech rate of Covid-19 cases slightly rising over the past week

The rate of Covid-19 cases in the Czech Republic rose to over 9 per 100,000 people over the past week, the highest it has been since mid-June, according to the data the Health Ministry released on Monday. On Sunday, 105 Covid-19 cases were reported, roughly double the number from a week ago. This was the biggest Sunday rise since late May.

There were almost 1,000 Covid-19 cases reported last week, while there were only 690 the week before. On Sunday, 26,673 Czechs were vaccinated, while there were over 40,000 a week ago. The vaccination progress may have slowed down because of the long four-day weekend. July 5 and 6 are national holidays in the Czech Republic.

Senators propose amendment granting Czechs abroad right to vote by mail

An election law amendment proposed in the Czech Senate would introduce postal voting rights for Czechs living abroad when the president and lawmakers are elected. The legislation was presented by 50 senators headed by Marek Hilšer and Tomáš Czernin. The amendment, signed by all members of the board of the upper house, would take effect next year.

The Senate will start debating the amendment in three weeks, but the Czech Republic would only enact it after the October general election. Under the amendment, postal voting would be used by Czechs permanently living abroad or who left the country for work or studies. Under current rules, they can only vote at Czech Embassies abroad, which is demanding for Czechs who live far from an embassy.

Czech football captain Vladimír Darida announces retirement from national team

Czech football team captain Vladimír Darida unexpectedly ended his career with the national team after the Euro championship quarterfinals during which the Czech Republic lost to Denmark on Saturday. He said he would like to spend more time with his family. The 30-year-old midfielder has been playing for Hertha Berlin since 2015.

"I gave all to football until now and football has been giving it back to me in return. But everything has some costs. During the Bundesleague and national team season I was away from home for 140 days playing and training. But now I want to spend much more time with the family and our little son," he said.

Foreign Ministry to sponsor Czech culture in Banat, Romania

The Foreign Ministry will sponsor projects in support of the Czech community in the Banat region of Moravia with three million crowns, a report made available to CTK has shown. Conditions for being granted a subsidy were fulfilled by five entities. The subsidy for a single project was a maximum of one million crowns.

Full support was granted to a Post Bellum project aimed at documenting the memories of elderly Czechs in the region, along with a project from the Club of Czech Tourists to mark hiking trails. Banat has one of the largest ethnic Czech communities in the world. Their roots trace back to 1823, when several groups of Czechs set out on a long road to the former border area of the Habsburg Empire.

Hand-written Bible translation Velehrad Manuscript may be finished in five years

Guests continued transcribing the Bible by hand within the Velehrad Manuscript project during the last two days, as they have every year since 2005 during the Days of People of Good Will two-day religious ceremony in Moravia. Several dozen volunteers finished the Book of Samuel and started writing the Book of Judges.

"The whole New testament has been hand-written, the last several books of the Old Testament are left. This will take approximately four or five years," said Petra Číhalová, from the Velehrad Roman Catholic parish. The transcribers are copying down a Bible translation made by Václav Bogner. Over the last few years, about 400 people took part in the hand writing project, and in total there have been 7,400 participants.