Czech morning news in brief: top stories for March 4, 2021

Data from the Ministry of Health valid as of March 2 shows that so far, 702,000 doses of vaccines have been administered in the Czech Republic since Dec. 27, when vaccination against Covid-19 launched. The vast majority of vaccinated doses are from Pfizer/BioNTech (626,920), followed by Moderna (39,442), and AstraZeneca (35,661). The pace of vaccination against Covid-19 in the Czech Republic is accelerating, with about 50,000 doses issued since Sunday but according to data from Bloomberg and the Ministry of Health, the Czech Republic has one of the worst vaccination rates in Europe per 100,000 inhabitants, performing below the average on a global scale. At 6.56 percent the Czech Republic ranks with The Netherlands (5.75 %), Croatia (5.24%), Latvia (3.45%), and Bulgaria (3.22%) among the five worst countries in the EU.

The digitization of manuscripts stored in the vaults of the National Library in Prague's Klementinum brought a unique discovery of compositions from the 13th century. Fragments of six two-part compositions composed in the circle of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris were bound in a 15th-century manuscript. A spokesperson for the library says this finding significantly completes the picture of the history of European medieval music. The treatise on the oldest history of music in Bohemia will need to be reformulated in the coming years. The original music score was most likely also written in Paris, but how and when it got to the Czech Republic, will require further research. 

The Czech economy fell by 5.6 percent last year, the most significant since the establishment of the independent Czech Republic. The Czech Statistical Office (CSO) confirmed these figures in a revised estimate published on Tuesday. In the fourth quarter of last year, the Czech Republic's gross domestic product fell by 4.7 percent year on year, while it rose by 0.6 percent quarter on quarter. The preliminary estimate from the beginning of February was based on a decrease of 5.6 percent for the whole of last year. The year-on-year decline in the last quarter was estimated by statistics at five percent and the quarter-on-quarter increase at 0.3 percent.

The bird flu virus was detected in wild birds in four previously unaffected regions: Zlín, Olomouc, Ústí nad Labem, and Prague. The H5N5 subtype was found in a dead swan in Kvasice in the Kroměříž district. This is the first occurrence of this subtype this year in the Czech Republic, the others are H5N8. According to the chairwoman of the Czech-Moravian Poultry Union, Gabriela Dlouhé, the new occurrence does not mean a problem for commercial breeding, however, veterinarians called on breeders to pay extra attention when feeding. There are currently eight outbreaks of the disease in farms in the Czech Republic.

Warm and cloudy days are expected on Thursday in the Czech Republic with possible rain showers and even snow, according to meteorologists. The weekend should be cold and sunny, with morning temperatures dropping drastically. The warm southwestern front will be replaced by a cold wave on Friday night. Over the weekend, skies should clear, but temperatures will remain very low, dropping to -10 degrees at night.