First coronavirus case confirmed in Olomouc region, 41st in Czech Republic

Olomouc, North Moravia, March 10 (CTK) – The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the Olomouc Region, Regional Governor Ladislav Oklestek told media today, adding that the patient is an employee of a foreign firm and is staying at the infection ward of the hospital in Prostejov.

The case is the 41st in the Czech Republic, where coronavirus previously appeared only in Prague and its surroundings, and in the northern Usti region, and one case has been reported in the Hradec Kralove Region, east Bohemia, and one the east Moravian region of Zlin.

Oklestek said the course of the Prostejov patient’s disease has not been serious for now. It is yet to be decided whether he will be treated in the Prostejov hospital or transferred to the infection ward of Prague’s Na Bulovce hospital.

This morning, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) announced that the number of patients with new coronavirus rose by two to 40 overnight, both new cases being related to north Italy, the same as many previous patients.

“The national laboratory has reported two [new] positive results of coronavirus tests…A total of 1,193 patients have been tested in Czechia so far, and the tests confirmed the disease in 40 of them,” Vojtech wrote.

He said one of the two new cases is a woman born in 1959, a resident of Central Bohemia who was at work in contact with an infected woman who had returned from ski holidays in Val Gardena, Italy.

The other new confirmed case is a man from the Usti Region, born 1966, who returned from the Sexten ski resort, Italy.

As of today, visits to hospital inpatient wards and old people’s homes, with a few exceptions, are banned across the Czech Republic, and the police carry random checks and measurements of the temperature of the drivers and passengers entering the Czech Republic at ten selected border crossings.

Earlier today, the government banned all events with more than 100 participants as of 18:00 today as a measure to curb the risk of coronavirus spreading.

All schools in the country will remain closed as of Wednesday, except for kindergartens, the government decided based on the National Security Council’s (BRS) recommendation.