Czech Republic coronavirus updates, October 26: Sunday rise in cases accelerates, 800 in serious condition

There were 7,301 new COVID-19 cases reported in the Czech Republic on Sunday, the first time that number has dipped below 10,000 in a week, according to the latest data published by the Czech Health Ministry this morning.

The figures have always been lower on Sundays, when fewer samples are tested than on workdays.

But the daily numbers of new infections continue rising steeply. On Saturday, the country reported 12,472 new cases, which is a new record for a weekend day. It's nearly double the amount of cases from the Saturday prior.

On Friday, the Czech Republic reported 15,253 new daily COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since the epidemic started in March.

A total of 255,373 people have caught the coronavirus in the Czech Republic so far, and 97,282 have recovered. Almost 156,000 are currently ill, most of them with a mild course of the disease. 

On Saturday, there were 5,345 COVID patients in hospital, about a half more than a week ago. The number of those in serious condition has risen by more than one third in the past week.

Between Wednesday and Saturday, the number of the deaths was always over 100, with the peak of 121 on Wednesday. Last week, there were 694 deaths and on Sunday, there were 71.

The Czech government is considering tightening anti-COVID-19 measures if things do not improve dramatically, especially given the rising number of people hospitalized.

Outgoing Health Minister Roman Prymula (for ANO) said the further toughening of measures depends on whether Tuesday's daily number of new COVID cases will show a decrease as against the record high from Friday, October 23.

The cabinet fears the country's healthcare system will collapse and run out of capacity.

As usual at weekends, a lower number of samples were tested for coronavirus on Saturday, when 36,254 tests were performed. This is fewer than 45,000 tests made on each of the preceding workdays, but almost one quarter more than the number of tests performed last Saturday.

This Saturday, the share of COVID-19 cases among the tested samples exceeded the record high 34 percent for the second time in a row.

COVID-19 is now spreading the fastest in the Zlin district, south Moravia, where 1,236 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded in the past seven days, followed by the Hradec Kralove (east Bohemia) with 1,114 and the Vsetin (south Moravia) districts with 1,113 cases. Cheb (west Bohemia) is the only of the country's 76 districts with this figure standing below 400.

All 14 Czech regions on the traffic lights map of COVID-19 incidence updated by the Health Ministry on Friday are red, which means a high infection risk and the virus community transfer across the country, with health officers failing to detect the source of infection. 

PM Andrej Babis (ANO) said on Sunday that the Health Ministry should quickly present a project for speeding up the testing and contacts tracing.