PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech government will meet on Thursday to discuss possible tighter measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday.
The country of 10.7 million has been one of the hardest hit by the virus in Europe. More than 15,700 people have died.
While the seven-day average of daily cases is 6,700, down by almost half since Jan. 9, hospitals remain under strain with the number of patients needing care at around 6,000. The government has sought to halve that number before easing restrictions on gatherings and movement.
The number of hospitalised patients was not falling and talk of easing any measures now was premature, Babis said.
“The situation is not good,” he said, adding various ministries would propose how to better tackle the situation for Thursday’s meeting, without giving more details.
Shops and restaurants have been largely closed since October during a second wave of the virus, except for several weeks in December before the Christmas holiday when they were opened with capacity limits. A flare-up of cases led to a re-tightening.
Industry, though, has remained open and the overall hit to the export-driven economy has not been as strong as at the outset of the pandemic in 2020 when factories idled for a period, leading to a record contraction in the second quarter.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Leslie Adler and Grant McCool)
