Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for April 7, 2021

President Miloš Zeman fully respects the prime minister's right to propose the dismissal and appointment of his government members, the president's spokesman tweeted on Tuesday after both CNN Prima News and the iDNES.cz server reported that Jan Blatný and Robert Plaga (both for ANO), health and education ministers respectively, would be dismissed from the coalition government of PM Andrej Babiš's ANO party and the Social Democrats on Wednesday. According to both media outlets, Blatný should be replaced by Prague-Vinohrady Teaching Hospital director Petr Arenberger. Arenberger told CNN Prima News two weeks ago that if needed, he was prepared to help as the health minister or an adviser. According to Radio Frekvence 1, President Zeman is ready to appoint new ministers of health and education today at 11 am.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic in February 2021 was 3.2 per cent, down from 3.3 per cent in January, according to data released by European Union statistics agency Eurostat Tuesday, which cited seasonally-adjusted figures. A year earlier, in February 2020 – prior to widespread closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic – unemployment in the Czech Republic was 1.8 per cent, Eurostat figures show. The Czech Republic and Poland had the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, at just above 3 per cent. The highest rates of unemployment were recorded in economies highly dependent on tourism (Spain at 16.1 per cent, Greece, with 15.8, and Italy at 10.8 percent).

Celebrations for International Romani Day, which falls on April 8, will take place online this year due to the epidemic. A three-day program with Roma musicians, organized by ARA ART, will begin Wednesday evening. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra will also hold a gala concert, and 30 years since its inception, it will commemorate the Museum of Romani Culture. International Roma Day has been celebrated since 1990. It commemorates the first international meeting of Roma representatives, which took place on April 8, 1971 near London. In the days to follow the first Roma Congress would took place, during which the International Roma Union was established. Participants from 14 countries, including the then Czechoslovakia were present. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra will broadcast its gala concert of jazz, classical, and Romani music on Thursday from 20:15. The Roma are the largest national minority in the Czech Republic. They represent over 2.4 percent of the country's population.

Czech police reported 6,921 misdemeanours related to the violation of anti-epidemic measures during the Easter holiday, between Friday and Monday, imposing 2,438 fines, police spokesperson told ČTK this week. He said 643 cases were passed on to the courts and the rest ended up with a warning. Police also recorded two incidents of people spreading an infectious disease over Easter, police data show. In total, 284,081 checks were carried out from Friday to Monday and the minor offences concerned both the anti-epidemic restrictions imposed by the Health Ministry and the government crisis measures. Police headquarters said people were prevented from entering another district than their residential one in 2,956 cases out of which 767 occurred on Friday. Some 3,000 police officers, 2,000 soldiers and 100 customs officers took part in the Easter checks.

Olomouc University (UP) physicians, scientists and students have launched a group aimed to "hunt" hoaxes, disinformation and conspiracy theories linked to the COVID disease, treatment and vaccination and refute or correct them, UP has said. "Disinformation markedly influences the behaviour of society and prevents it from defeating the epidemic," Vít Procházka, from UP's medical faculty, wrote on www.zurnal.upol.cz. He said the Hoax Hunters will map the situation in public media and various expert groups, and present their own videos on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube based on their contacts with top experts in media creation, fight against disinformation, immunology, and vaccinology. "Our strategy is to communicate on an expert level but comprehensibly and decently," Procházka added. ČTK