Czech state of emergency will end on April 11, says Prime Minister

The state of emergency will end on April 11 and the Czech government will not seek an extension past this date, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told tn.cz today.

Because of this, the restriction on free movement of people between districts as well as the 9:00 p.m. night curfew will end as of April 12.

The state of emergency has been valid since October 5 without interruption. It has been prolonged several times.

"It is true that the state of emergency is going to end. We will not extend it and we will be guided by the pandemic law," Babiš told tn.cz.

This means that the the ban on movement between districts and the night curfew will really end on April 12, he emphasized.

Most of the Czech Republic's lockdown measures are tied to the state of emergency. The limitation of people free movement depends on it.

At the end of March, the minority government of Babiš' ANO party and the Social Democrats wanted to prolong the state of emergency until April 27. However, the Chamber of Deputies only approved its extension until April 11.

Last week, the Chamber of Deputies called on the government to lift the measures limiting the movement of people within districts and checks of citizens at their borders on April 6.

Travelling outside one's district of residence has been severely limited since early March. There are exceptions for people commuting to work. The night curfew is valid between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

At the end of February and start of March, the coronavirus epidemic surged to over 14,000 cases a day. At that time, the tightened lockdown took effect. In late March, the daily number of new cases started falling, down to about 5,800 cases per day.