Prague Castle Guard soldier tests positive for COVID-19

Prague, July 29 (CTK) – A soldier serving in the Prague Castle Guard tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, and the other guard members who met him underwent tests and were quarantined, Prague Castle Guard spokesman Jiří Havel has told CTK.

“This will in no way affect the Castle Guard’s operation,” Havel added.

The guard soldiers have not been in contact with President Miloš Zeman, whose official seat Prague Castle is.

Zeman’s spokesman Jiří Ovčáček told CTK that the measures concerning the president’s safety during the pandemic “are flexibly reacting to the situation development.”

The infected soldier is on sick leave. The results of the coronavirus tests of the other guard members are not known yet. They were sent to a preventive quarantine, Havel said.

The Castle Guard is one of the three parts of of the Armed Force of the Czech Republic, together with the Czech military and the president’s military office.

The Castle Guard, comprised of more than 700 soldiers and some 40 civilian employees at present, is in charge of the protection of Prague Castle, the venue of the Presidential Office, the Lany Chateau near Prague, the presidential summer residence, and possibly other buildings to temporary serve as the seat of the head of state as well as security of official state events.

Prague sanitary officers registered a considerable rise in the COVID-19 incidence in the capital of late. More than 100 new cases appeared in the previous 24 hours, according to the data from 18:00 on Tuesday, which was the highest daily rise in Prague since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in the country in March.

Over 3,000 people have got infected in Prague, of whom more than 2,100 have recovered and 104 have died since the epidemic outbreak.