Easter holidays have not affected spread of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic

Prague, April 23 (CTK) – Easter holidays have not affected the rise in the COVID-19 incidence in Czechia and though it still cannot be ruled out, it is unlikely to happen, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch (for ANO) and Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS) head Ladislav Dušek said today.

Czech politicians said last week that people did not always follow rules restricting gathering in public and wearing face masks during Easter. Moreover, hobby market shops were opened and many people went there.

Dušek said the infected people may still infect others in the next few days, but a sharp rise in number of new cases would have been already apparent.

According to the UZIS, the reproduction number of COVID-19 in the country, which is 1.0 now, does not allow for a quick uncontrolled spread of the illness.

Experts said it would take at least five days for a possible increase in the number of new cases to become evident after Easter. The relative daily increase has been falling since Monday and it was 1.41 percent on Wednesday. Moreover, the share of positive tests in the daily number of tests has been decreasing since the end of March and is 3.8 percent at present.

On Wednesday, 99 new cases were confirmed and more than 8,500 tests were carried out.