Today in Czechia: TOP 09 wants to restart euro adoption process

The Czech Republic should start aiming at the goal of adopting the euro as the national currency again as it would boost the economy, but the government does not plan euro adoption in this election period, lower house budget committee deputy head Miloš Nový said on behalf of his party TOP 09. Lower house European committee deputy head Ondřej Kolář (TOP 09) said his party wanted to talk to voters about the euro’s positive features during the campaign before the autumn local and Senate elections. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democrats, ODS) said on Thursday that the country will not get close to the euro adoption criteria in this election period.

This morning, police divers from South Bohemia announced on Twitter that they recovered the body of a man from the Vltava river in the center of Český Krumlov. He had been missing since a raft with five people overturned on Tuesday. Four managed to swim to safety, but one did not. Police and divers looked for the person but eventually scaled back the search. The identity of the victim has not been released.

An 11th case of monkeypox has been confirmed in the Czech Republic, this time in the Ústí nad Labem region. The person, who had traveled abroad, lives alone and is in isolation. It is the first person to be infected outside of Prague, the National Institute of Public Health (SZÚ) said. The institute currently is not investigating any other samples. According to information from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Spain, Germany, and Britain have already recorded over 1,000 cases each.

The Czech Republic has paid CZK 19 billion for vaccines against Covid-19, it donated vaccines for CZK 270 million to other countries, and vaccines for CZK 190 million were eliminated because of their expiration date, the Health Ministry said. Vaccine deliveries planned for summer were postponed for the autumn when interest in vaccination is expected to increase and when new types are available. EU countries have made joint purchases of vaccines against Covid. Czechia will deal with new contracts with the vaccine producers during its presidency of the Council of the EU this year.

Czech police detained 35 illegal migrants from the Middle East in the Zlín region this week. On Tuesday evening, police patrols found 19 migrants in the Uherské Hradiště district. On Thursday evening, they found five migrants near Zlín and 11 migrants in the Vsetín district. The Zlín regional police headquarters has been focusing on checking documents of people near the border with Slovakia.