Czech PM Andrej Babiš in favor of shortening mandatory COVID-19 quarantine to 10 days

Babiš said he would talk about the possible shortening with experts and they would have the final say on it. He said the government council for health risks would meet on Monday and discuss it.

“We must do our utmost to get back to normal. We need to monitor the activity of the virus, the number of people in hospitals, what type of people unfortunately died, and act on the basis on this,” he told the paper.

Epidemiologist Roman Prymula, who is the government commissioner for medical science and research, said there is great pressure to make the quarantine shorter than two weeks.

“They have experience with it abroad. For example, ten days proves to be enough for people without symptoms in the United States because the virus can spread only rarely then,” Prymula told Pravo.

Czech chief public health officer Jarmila Rážová has also supported the shortening, the paper writes.

According to experts, the virus is not infectious after ten days, though it is still present in the person’s body, and so the person may end the quarantine if he or she has no symptoms, experts argue.

Daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote on Thursday that Slavia Praha football club chief Jaroslav Tvrdík thinks the quarantine should be shortened. Slavia had to return from Austria where it played warm-up matches and the team must be in isolation until August 24 because one of its players caught coronavirus.

Tvrdík warned against the strict rules that may threaten the Czech football league which starts on August 21.

Babiš told Pravo he is aware of the situation in sport. “I can understand the football players in whose matches lots of money is at stake, especially in foreign competitions. We do not want to threaten football clubs and ban them from playing domestic or international matches,” he said.

He said the Prague public health officer is dealing with the case of Slavia.

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch, Education Minister Richard Plaga (both for ANO), Labour Minister Jana Maláčová and Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek will take part in the meeting of the government council for health risks on Monday. Vojtěch is to talk about the development of the COVID-19 infection, Plaga about measures at schools, Maláčová about the situation in care homes for the elderly and Zaorálek about big cultural events.