Czech morning news: Top headlines for Aug. 8, 2022

The 12th Prague Pride, an annual week-long festival of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) awareness began with raising the rainbow flag at Prague City Hall today. The festival runs through Aug. 14 and offers 150 events, its director Tom Bily and Prague officials have told media. The program will culminate with a carnival parade in the center of Prague on Saturday.

Unemployment in the Czech Republic rose to 3.3 percent in July from 3.1 percent in June. At the end of the month, over 240,000 people were looking for a job through employment offices. On average, there are 0.8 applicants per vacant position in the Czech Republic. 

The cause of the increase in unemployment in July is limited recruitment of new employees due to company-wide holidays. To a lesser extent, the increase was also reflected in the arrival of some school graduates on the labor market, according to the Labor Office.

The Prague Hygiene Office recorded another three monkeypox cases. In total, 22 cases have been confirmed in the capital. Only one monkeypox case has been recorded in another part of the country, and that was in the Ústí nad Labem region. The three latest cases concern young men who were 27, 29, and 31 years old and who did not travel abroad before their infection. All three were ordered to stay in home isolation.

The symptoms of the disease are mostly a rash accompanied by headache, eye pain, sore throat, fever, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, problems with balance, and faintness. The Czech Republic received 1,400 doses of the vaccine against monkeypox as a donation from the European Commission and should get another 1,400 doses. Czechia does not plan any blanket vaccination against monkeypox.

A storm knocked down high voltage transmission lines on the D1 motorway, 15 kilometers east of Prague, on Friday evening, and the motorway had to be closed in both directions. A ČEZ power utility spokeswoman said the lines were cut off. Due to the heavy storms, about 15,000 households in Central Bohemia were without electricity last night. She said five electricity pylons were destructed and the damage caused by the storm is estimated at CZK 20 million.

A night fire in the underground garages in the center of Prague caused damage estimated at around CZK 2 million. The flames destroyed at least seven cars. Other vehicles were damaged by the heat. Prague firefighters are investigating the cause of the fire, Prague fire department spokeswoman Kateřina Suchánská said this morning.

Czech consumers without a fixed-price energy tariff are seeing costs rising nearly by up to four times, according to a survey of local customers and suppliers by newspaper Právo. According to ČEZ, one of the country's largest suppliers, about ten percent of its customers are not on a fixed tariff; according to Innogy, half of its customers are not on a fixed tariff.

"Until recently, I paid an advance of CZK 1,800 per month for gas, now the supplier wants 4,300," one Prague consumer told Práva. "They increased my payment to CZK 9,880 in January, and then to almost 16,000 in April. I was shocked," remarked another.

Temperatures in the Czech Republic are predicted to be mild heading into the next week, with daily highs of about 23-27 degrees Celsius, according to the latest forecast by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Sunday will be mostly cloudy, with isolated storms overnight and into Monday morning.

Hot temperatures will return to the country by next weekend, however, with highs of up to 34 degrees Celsius forecast by Saturday. A fire warning remains in effect for select areas of the country in Northern Bohemia and Southern Moravia.

Prices for plots of land in the Czech Republic have been rising continuously since 2010 and shot up a whopping 23.2 percent over the past year, according to analysis conducted by real estate company Ekonomické stavby. According to the report, there is a shortage of available land and prices are expected to continue to rise.

While sale prices for both new and older apartment buildings in the Czech Republic stagnated in the second quarter of 2022, the same was not the case for plots of land. "And due to the fact that these are scarce goods that simply cannot be 'produced', price reductions are highly unlikely," the company's commercial director Martin Protiva told local media.

The Czech Foreign Ministry has reported that 50 Czech citizens have died while abroad during this summer tourist season, from June 15 to August 5. According to the Ministry, the number of deaths for citizens while abroad has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Popular tourist destinations such as Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Spain, France, and Greece were the most common locations in instances of deaths for Czech citizens while abroad. Last year, the Czech Republic reported 105 deaths of citizens abroad between June 15 and September 15; that number was 60 in 2020 while travel was limited due to the pandemic.

In addition to the longest suspension bridge in the world, an elaborate lookout tower, and bobsled track, the resort town of Dolní Morava is moving ahead with plans to invest in additional recreational attractions, its Mayor Richard Novák told reporters. A wellness hotel, new cable car, additional ski slope, and artificial lake are among the plans moving forward.

"These things are supposed to stabilize tourism in some way," Novák told local reporters. "The goal is for the resort to offer people a range of activities so that they stay here for several days, have something to do, and support the local economy."

Roughly half of the Czech Republic's 160 measuring stations reported record-high temperatures for August 5 on Friday, the second day in a row to see record-high temperatures, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute's Petra Sýkorová told reporters.

The highest temperatures yesterday were reported in areas of Southern Moravia, where temperatures above 37 degrees Celsius were recorded at multiple measuring stations. Due to the high temperatures, a wildfire warning is currently in effect in areas of Northern Bohemia and Southern Moravia.

Train travel between Bohemia and Moravia on routes that pass through Brandýs nad Orlicí was interrupted this morning due to damage on the tracks. The type of damage was not specified, but may be related to last night's storms. Travel has been halted on these routes since early this morning, and railway officials hope to have repairs completed by early this afternoon.

"Prior to 6:45 a.m., the traction line was damaged at the Brandýs nad Orlicí station," a spokesperson for Czech Railway Administration told reporters. "We are currently working on repairing the traction line, it involves repairing both sides of the tracks, so it is not yet possible to resume operations. As soon as the repair is completed, the trains will be able to [resume operation]."

The Czech unemployment rate among recent graduates from Czech secondary schools rose by nearly a third last year, up to 6.2 percent, according to analysis conducted by the National Pedagogical Institute. According to their research, economic effects following the coronavirus pandemic have led to rising unemployment among this group.

"The situation regarding interest in graduates is changing significantly," the National Pedagogical Institute analysis states. "The number of graduates is starting to increase, but the expected economic downturn, reinforced by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have led to a need to address the problems of their unemployment and employability on the labor market."

A 54-year-old man was pulled from Prague's Vltava river by rescue divers on Friday afternoon, but despite the efforts from paramedics, he could not be saved. Representatives from Prague's police and emergency rescue departments informed journalists about the case on Friday evening.

The man was found near the ferry station in Prague's Smíchov neighborhood. According to witnesses, the man had gone for a swim and disappeared under the water. "Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of all those involved, the man's life could not be saved," said Jana Poštová, a spokesperson for Prague's rescue services.