Number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic surges to 61

Prague, March 10 (CTK) – There are 61 cases of the novel coronavirus in Czech Republic now, while the figure stood at 40 in the morning, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch (for ANO) told Czech Radio in late afternoon today.

This means that there were 21 new cases today, which has been the biggest increase in a single day so far, Vojtěch said.

Vojtěch said one of the new patients seemed to have got infected when skiing in Austria. However, the illness has had a mild course in all the infected persons and the lives of none of them are endangered.

In all, 1,193 people have been tested for the presence of the virus in the Czech Republic.

A Japanese man living in the Moravian city of Olomouc became the first confirmed coronavirus case in the Olomouc Region, Olomouc Region Governor Ladislav Oklestek (ANO) said today.

One of the coronavirus patients is a student of the University of Economics (VSE) in Prague, the school has said on its website.

“The student has no health problems, does not live on the campus and did not have food at the university canteen,” the website said.

She took part in the instruction last week, it added.

On Monday afternoon, the VSE was closed due to the student’s contact with other infected people, awaiting the results of the test.

Now the school passed the list of the people who were going to the lectures along with the infected girl to the sanitary authority. The school was disinfected.

At 18:00, the ban on events with over 100 participants took effect in the Czech Republic.

The National Security Council (BRS) has ordered the measure until further notice. It relates to all public and private theatre, music, film and other performances. For the same reason, visits to hospitals and homes for the elderly were banned in the morning.

All schools except pre-school facilities will be closed as of Wednesday.

So far, none of the confirmed cases of coronavirus infections appears to be life-threatening.

New cases of coronavirus infections have been registered in the Olomouc, Hradec Kralove and Zlin regions today.

According to Vojtěch, Prague and the Ústí nad Labem regions remain the key areas that are most affected by the disease.