Czech Republic coronavirus updates, October 5: COVID-19 numbers hit weekend record, state of emergency takes effect

There were 1,841 new COVID-19 cases reported in the Czech Republic on Sunday, according to the latest data published by the Czech Health Ministry this morning.

Yesterday's number is a record high for a Sunday; the number of new cases on Saturday, 2,556, was also a record high for that day of the week.

Fewer COVID-19 tests are generally conducted over the weekend, resulting in fewer confirmed cases. On Saturday, there were 14,863 COVID-19 tests performed. The previous day, Friday, 22,798 tests were performed as the Czech Republic set a daily record with 3,793 new cases. The number of tests performed on Sunday will be updated later today.

There are currently 37,750 known active COVID-19 cases in the Czech Republic. Among those, 1,841 patients are currently hospitalized with 274 considered to be in serious condition.

The majority of cases display mild or no symptoms, with the ratio of those hospitalized at about 3% of the number of total number of cases. Still, the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and those in serious condition have both roughly doubled over the past week with the surge in new cases. 

There were 11 COVID-19-related deaths yesterday, bringing the death toll since the start of the epidemic in March to 727. Over the past week, the number of COVID-19-related deaths rose by over 100. The Czech Republic considers anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and later passes away as a COVID-19-related death, regardless of other primary or contributing factors.

Since March, the Czech Republic has reported a total of 82,446 COVID-19 cases, the majority of them coming over the past month.

Over the past week, Uherské Hradiště has seen the highest rate of infections, at about 398 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. Benešov has reported 265 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over that span, while Liberec has reported about 258 new cases per 100,000 residents.

In Prague, there have been roughly 231 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week.

The Czech capital, along with Prague-East, Prague-West, and Uherské Hradiště, are currently red in the Czech Health Ministry's traffic light map of the country, indicating a continued upward trend of community COVID-19 transmission.

From today, a state of emergency is officially in effect in the Czech Republic. The state of emergency itself does not refer to any particular measures, but rather the government's ability to enact them while bypassing the usual legislative process.

Under the state of emergency, a series of new measures go into effect largely intended to limit the number of people at gatherings and particularly risky activities.

These measures affect the operation of schools, restaurants, social activities, shops and services and sports and fitness activities. See here for a full list of new regulations that take effect from today.

These measures will last for two weeks, and the Czech Health Ministry will either prolong, alter, or repeal them past that date based on the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country.

On Friday, October 9, Czech Health Minister Roman Prymula will outline his further plans for curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Roughly 60 additional measures are currently being considered, according to Prymula.