Study reveals that a very small part of the Czech population is infected with COVID-19

Prague, May 6 (CTK) – A Czech collective immunity study showed that a very small part of the population, 107 out of 26,549 people, tested positive for coronavirus, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (ANO) told a press conference today.

He said there is no reason to change the government timetable for the loosening of the restrictive measures in the country.

The study showed that in Prague, Brno, and Litomerice, north Bohemia the percentage of positive cases is under 0.6 percent.

In the Olomouc district, central Moravia, including in the small towns of Unicov and Litovel, which were isolated at the beginning of the epidemic due to rapidly spreading throughout the area, less than 5 percent of those tested were positive.

Health Information and Statistics Institute (UZIS) director Ladislav Dusek said 27 to 38 percent of the infected showed no symptoms of the illness according to the study.

The study found that there were 2.25 infected but asymptomatic persons per one person who already tested positive, Dusek said.

Of the infected persons who had not been diagnosed, 51 percent had no symptoms.

Vojtech said it is necessary to focus on local epicentres of the infection, particularly the Cheb district, west Bohemia, and Prague over the last few days. “We don’t have a national problem anymore, but we must deal with it locally,” he said.

An estimated 5,000 were tested in Prague, 5,000 in Brno, 6,700 in Olomouc, 3,100 in Litomerice and 2,400 in Unicov and Litovel.

There were an estimated 1,200 respondents from the Czech Academy of Sciences (AV CR), 620 from the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) and 2,400 chronic patients of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM).

The tests showed that up to 1.48 percent of the respondents were infected in Prague, up to 1.87 percent in Brno and up to 4 percent in Olomouc; up to 1.29 among those chosen by the AV CR, 0.63 percent by those chosen by the IKEM.

Among those who joined the study as volunteers, 0.22 percent tested positive in Brno, 0.4 percent in Prague, 0.6 percent in Litomerice, 1.29 percent in Olomouc, and 3.33 percent in Litovel and Unicov.

kva/dr/rtj