Czech Republic now has 64 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 34 in Prague

Prague, March 11 (CTK) – One coronavirus case was confirmed in the Czech Republic overnight, the total reaching 64, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) has told Czech Television (CT), adding that none of the patients has recovered from the Covid-19 disease so far.

The Western Plzen Region has reported its first case.

The sanitary authorities still succeed in tracing the source of the patients’ infection, Vojtech said.

“We have 64 cases already, another one tested positively in the night,” he said, adding that this is a woman from the Plzen Region who has a link to Italy.

The number of infected people rose by 24 in the past 24 hours, from Tuesday morning’s 40.

Later on Tuesday, first cases were reported in the regions of Olomouc (central Moravia), Pardubice (east Bohemia) and Vysocina (southwest Moravia).

“Although some of the patients feel healthy and show no clinical symptoms [of Covid-19] any more, they still remain infectious,” Vojtech said, adding that no patient’s two control tests within 24 hours have been negative so far.

The highest number of cases, 34, is in Prague, followed by the north Bohemian Usti Region with 12 and Central Bohemia with eight cases.

The first cases of new coronavirus infection were confirmed in Czechia on March 1.

A total of 1,358 people have been tested for the virus so far, including 165 on Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry’s fresh data.

One of the new cases from Tuesday is a man from the Vysocina Region, born 1964, who recently spent holidays in Lombardy, Italy.

Another two cases appeared in the east Bohemian Hradec Kralove Region. Both are women returning from Val Gardena, Italy.

One new case appeared in the Usti Region, a woman returning from Italy’s Trentino-Alto Adige region.

Further two new patients are a man and a woman from the Olomouc Region, both born 1959, who also returned from Italy. The third patient in the Olomouc Region is a Japanese national born in 1965, who arrived in Czechia from Bavaria.

The Pardubice Region’s first patient is a man born 1950, who returned from Bad Gastein, Austria.

Out of the six new cases that appeared in Central Bohemia on Tuesday, five are a group of people who recently holidayed in the Trentino region, Italy.

“It has turned out that all of them were infected by the 10th Czech coronavirus case, a Czech man who also returned from Trentino,” he ministry wrote.

The sixth new case in Central Bohemia is a woman born 1959 who was in contact with an infected resident of the Usti Region after his return from the Veneto region, Italy.

Eleven new cases mushroomed in Prague on Tuesday. Out of them, eight patients seem to have got infected in the Czech Republic.

“Those without a travel anamnesis include two U.S. nationals, born 1986 and 1985, who contracted coronavirus in Prague,” the ministry wrote. The two were in contact with a woman from the Usti Region, who returned from Italy, as did another three patients detected in Prague on Tuesday.

“They are a woman born in 1959 and another two women from Prague, who all got infected in Prague” the Health Ministry wrote.

The remaining three new cases in Prague have links to Italy.

On Tuesday, the ministry took a series of extraordinary measures against the new virus spreading. Elementary and secondary schools, as well as universities and colleges, remain closed as of today, and events with more than 100 participants have been banned since Tuesday, 18:00.

Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula told the DVTV online television that the measures will last one month at least.

Last week, the ministry imposed a compulsory two-week quarantine on Czechs and foreign residents of Czechia returning from Italy.

On Monday, the police started random checks, including temperature measurements, of drivers and passengers entering the Czech Republic at selected ten border crossings.

The Czech Republic previously also suspended its air connection with northern Italy, China and South Korea, and the issuance of Czech visas to people in Iran.

Prague has also banned the export of disinfection and effective respirators abroad.