Czech Republic has enough respirators to meet new requirements, say officials

The Czech Republic has a large stock of respirators on hand and has secured contracts for further supply, according to Finance Minister Alena Schillerová.

The country is prepared for the new requirement to use respirators as opposed to other forms of face coverings, she states. Schillerová told journalists that she still wants to monitor the situation.

The Czech Health Ministry will impose a requirement to wear respirators, nano-masks, or two surgical masks at places with a high concentration of people as of Tuesday due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country.

Schillerová said the situation in the Czech Republic is now different than it was last spring, when the country was short of protective means during the first wave of the epidemic.

"We have information that the stock is huge everywhere. We have no signals [about a shortage] from either retail chains or producers," she said.

Schillerová said she recently visited retail chains to check whether the prices of respirators fell following the temporary abolition of VAT on these products by the cabinet.

She said did not see any limited sales of respirators anywhere, stock was sufficient, and sellers had secured contracts for further supplies.

"I think they are quite well prepared for it, but I will be watching it," Schillerová said, referring to the new respirator requirement that Czech residents will face as of Tuesday.

State Material Reserves Administration chairman Pavel Švagr said that production capacities mushroomed in the Czech Republic since the outbreak of the epidemic last March.

"There are about 15 producers of FFP2 respirators [in the Czech Republic] and a even larger number of face mask producers," Švagr said.

Health Minister Jan Blatný, too, said on Friday that there are currently enough respirators on the Czech market to meet expected demand.