Coronavirus in Prague: Current state of beds and voting from quarantine
Coronavirus infections began to increase rapidly in Prague. There were 406 new cases in the last 24 hours. A total of 5,445 people have been diagnosed in Prague. How well is the metropolis handling the disease and what measures is it going to take?
Prague is looking for volunteer carers
Would you like to learn how to take care of a bedridden patient? Here comes your chance - the Czech Red Cross is launching the project "Pomáhám pečovat" (I help with caring). In one-day courses, everyone interested can get acquainted with the simple basics of caring for a bedridden patient - how to provide personal hygiene, serve food and how to communicate with the patient.
In the event of a shortage of staff, volunteers will be able to help both in hospitals or social care facilities and at home.
"We are not doing this because the situation is critical, we are doing it i because it is time to prepare the general public for this eventual service,"
the commander of the Central Crisis Team of the Czech Red Cross, Richard Smejkal, explained.
Coronavirus is rampant among drivers
Of the organizations necessary for the operation of the city, the most infected are among the employees of the transport company - about fifty as of today. However, this doesn't affect transport - one of the reasons why the number of infected people is so high is the large number of employees. Other services - police, city police, ambulance - are operating as usual and their work has not been disrupted due to coronavirus. Volunteer firefighters are helping the firefighters in Prague.
Voting from quarantine?
Would you like to cast a vote for your favorite, but you're currently in quarantine? No need to despair! The so-called drive-ins will solve your problem.
This time, only Senate elections will be held in Prague, in no more than three districts. There will therefore be only two tents, one at Letná - for Prague 1 and 5 - and one at Prosek - for Prague 9.
There are a total of 78 such posts throughout the Czech Republic. They should open tomorrow (for the first round of elections) and next Wednesday (for the second round).
The voters won't have to get out of the car, they'll just open the window.
"If people want, they can order a mobile ballot box to be delivered to their home. In general, we try to be prepared for all possibilities,"
explained the mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib. Quarantined people who have requested it will be visited by the commission on Friday or Saturday.
At this point, there are enough beds
According to the latest data from this afternoon, a total of 133 beds are available in the Prague ARK and ICU departments - that is 16 percent of the total number. And there are 819 oxygen beds available.
"Those are better numbers than what we had on Friday. I am optimistic in this regard,"
said Hřib. However, Prague is still trying to work out ways to increase bed capacity.
More sampling points
Another novelty that awaits us this week is an interactive map of sampling points. It will enable you to find out, where there is currently free capacity. Additional test sites should also be available. From October 1, one should open in Spálená Street and another at the Exhibition Grounds.
Will there be another state of emergency?
However, this will probably not be all that awaits us in the coming days: on Wednesday, the ministers want to present further measures for the coming weeks. According to the Minister of Health Roman Prymula, the restrictions should apply to education, leisure activities and social gatherings.
Prymula also proposed a declaration of a state of emergency, which would apply from Monday - the government will discuss it on Wednesday. The Czech Republic already was under a state of emergency from March 12 to May 17; the government has the right to declare it for 30 days.
