Czech morning news in brief: top stories for Jan. 13, 2021

Prague City Hall has fined the Rio's restaurant at Prague-Vysehrad where then health minister Roman Prymula met government ANO leading politician Jaroslav Faltynek at the time when restaurants had to be closed within the anti-coronavirus rules, the Seznam Zpravy server reported yesterday. According to CTK, The Seberak restaurant in the Prague-Kunratice district was fined, too, as in early December, it was repeatedly open after 8 p.m., the official closing time within the COVID restrictions. Its owner Jakub Olbert wants to challenge the decision, he told CTK, because he was fined 15,000 crowns as a private person and not as a firm, which he deems unlawful. The full story here.

Some 1,300 Czech school principals and other school management members demand a 9-percent rise in the teachers' base pay as well as bonuses in an open letter to PM Andrej Babis (ANO), Club of School Principals chairman Roman Polda told CTK. They consider the current 4-percent base pay rise insufficient, he added. Education Ministry spokeswoman Aneta Lednova said the ministry was fulfilling the government promise and was striving for 80 to 20 percent proportion of fixed base pay and bonuses. At present, the share of the base pay is higher, she added.

Last year, in the third quarter, apartment prices in Prague and regional cities rose by an average of 15.8 percent year on year to 70,300 crowns per square meter. The growth rate was the highest since March 2018. In the third quarter, the most expensive was Prague (94,300 crowns per square meter), the cheapest was Ústí nad Labem (CZK 22,800 / m2). Since 2014, prices in the Czech Republic have increased by an average of 84 percent. This follows from a study by the consulting company Deloitte, which uses the cenovamapa.org portal to process the information on sales prices from purchase contracts registered in the real estate cadastre.

According to a survey by PAQ Research concerns about the epidemic among Czechs are growing. People's contacts decreased overall during the Christmas period, which was mainly due to a reduction in going to work and other activities. Attendance at work was reduced by people at the end of the year with some taking leave and others working from home. While Czechs are increasingly concerned about infection, they reportedly took more risks like visiting families at the end of the year during which they were without a face mask for more than 15 minutes. At least one meeting with friends or family took place during the holidays for three-fifths of people. Read more here.