Czech morning news in brief: top stories for Jan. 11, 2021

Several thousand people joined the Let’s Open Czechia demonstration and protested against the government lockdown imposed on the country to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the historical center of Prague yesterday. In Old Town Square, speeches were made by representatives of entrepreneurs, artists, doctors, and students. Former president Vaclav Klaus addressed the crowd, too. Read more here.

People coming to the Czech Republic from France and Ireland will have to submit negative coronavirus tests to be let in the country from today because the two countries have again become red on the traffic lights travel map, the Health Ministry announced in a press release. On the contrary, people coming from Belgium, Bulgaria, and Hungary will not need to have a negative test anymore as these countries moved from the red to the orange level.

According to meteorologists, colder weather can be expected for the next 14 days. Until Jan. 25, the average lowest temperatures at night should be about minus four degrees, with the average of the highest daytime temperatures around two degrees. "We expect weekly averages of the lowest night temperatures around minus seven degrees Celsius, weekly averages of the highest daily temperatures around minus one degrees Celsius," they said. See the full story here.

The influenza virus has not yet been recorded in the Czech Republic this year though it seems that the flu season will be mild and the incidence of the virus will not be high, according to information from the National Institute of Public Health (SZU). "The flu activity can be estimated as minimum, also given the similar situation in Europe," said Klara Dolakova, from the SZU press section. She said the flu season was mild in countries of the southern hemisphere which were considerably affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

The Czech Ornithological Society says around 17,000 people have so far sent data to them about birds over the winter. People have time to send their observations by Jan. 15th. The third year of the nationwide census of birds on feeders, called Bird Hour, has once again seen great public interest. "The current number of censuses submitted by Jan. 10 is 12,690 from 17,548 participants who observed 401,733 birds. Last year, at that time, there were 10,268 censuses from 14,294 participants," said the Bird Watch coordinator Alena Skálová in a press release. Read more here.

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