Early Bird: Feri hit a million on Instagram. The Dancing House will glow blue. A new center for the homeless

A new center for the homeless

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Both day and overnight centers in Prague are currently completely full. The freezing weather puts a large number of homeless people in danger every day. Prague will therefore open a temporary 24-hour shelter for the most serious cases. Regular testing of homeless people for Covid-19 continues in accommodation facilities.

"With a capacity of 78 beds, the hostel will serve the most fragile people, whom social workers from day centers and field teams evaluate as most endangered, meaning there is a real risk that they could lose their lives in the cold weather. The hostel, located in Holešovice, will function as a temporary dormitory, so people will be able to stay here all day and they'll be provided with food as well,"

explains Milena John, Councilor for Social Policy and Health. Social workers anticipate that the capacity of the newly opened hostel will be filled very soon. The city expects to leave the the temporary accommodation open for the next 2 to 3 weeks. This will free up beds in less comfortable dormitories for other homeless people.

Melbourne goes back in quarantine

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The second most populous city in Australia, Melbourne, will enter a five-day lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The spectators of the Australian Open tennis tournament will therefore miss out on most of the matches.

On Thursday, the state capital of Victoria registered 13 positive cases, all of which were associated with the highly contagious British mutation. Melbourne will enter lockdown mode from midnight tonight.

"We must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for. And that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months,"

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told the press. Andrews also said that the spread of the British strain of the virus was much faster than previous outbreaks in the country.

The dancing house to glow blue

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As soon as Monday, February 15, at 6 pm, the Dancing House will glow blue under the auspices of Mayor Jana Černochová and Deputy Mayor Alexandra Udženija of the Prague 2 district on the occasion of the International Day of Angelman Syndrome. The aim is to help families who face a trying fate day after day. Children with Angelman syndrome, also known as Happy Puppet Syndrome, suffer from a rare genetic disease. They experience problems with movement, delayed development or epilepsy. The sufferers are sometimes called angelic children, because they often laugh out loud.

More than 100 families in the Czech Republic are struggling with this diagnose, which is why Prague 2 wants to contribute to the popularization of the disease by symbolically lighting the Dancing House. People in our country are largely unfamiliar with the syndrome, even though there is great potential of finding treatment. The disease is incurable at the moment, but experts believe that treatment is within reach.

Burj Khalifa, Cleveland Tower, Mercedes-Benz Superdome or Niagara Falls - these monuments and many others throughout the world glow blue every year in symbol of Angelman syndrome. With one goal in mind: to support research of this rare disease. Prague will become part of this initiative on Monday.

Feri has reached 1 million fans

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At the age of twenty-four, Czech politician Dominik Feri breaks Instagram records! He has been one of the top influencers for a long time, mainly thanks to a very good mapping of the situation around the coronavirus pandemic. He constantly supplies his followers with changes in the government measures and news from the Chamber of Deputies, thus provading invaluable insight into the Czech political world. And it obviously pays off for him! Yesterday, the young politician exceeded the threshold of one million followers and thus caught up with the artist Silvia Mahdalová or popular host Leoš Mareš. Since last evening, Feri has received a great number of well-deserved congratulations. It's his characteristic yellow exclamation marks what gained him such popularity. A black exclamation mark on a yellow background accompanied by a short, concise text providing the latest information about coronavirus, that's Feri's key to success.

"There's a whole million of you here. I'm extremely grateful and I'd like to thank you all. Together, we brought Czech instagram to a whole new level. And we'll beat that stupid virus together, too,"

he said in his post. Before the pandemic, Feri had 100,000 followers on his account, which means he has gained over 900,000 fans in less than y year.

Luxusní byt na prodej na Praha 9 - 65m2,

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According to a survey, the British economy should reach pre-coronavirus levels within two years

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The British economy will narrowly avoid a double-dip recession and should return to pre-COVID-19 levels within two years, economists said in a Reuters survey. The country suffered the highest number of victims of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, due to which the government had to reintroduce strict measures in attempt to stop the spread of the virus.

Gross domestic product was expected to decline by 3% this quarter, which is more than double compared to predictions for last month. However, Britain is one of the leading countries when it comes to vaccinating the population, and GDP is expected to grow by 4.7% in the second quarter, as some restrictions are likely to be lifted. According to experts, the sharp decline in positive cases in Britain suggests that the government will be able to set plans to reopen schools from February 22, followed by retailers and the consumer services sector.

For 2021 as a whole, the revision of the growth prognosis has been reduced to 4.7% from 4.9%. When asked how long it would take for the economy to reach pre-coronavirus levels, Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics answered two years from now.

That's all from the Early Bird for today. We wish you a beautiful Friday and a weekend full of joy, which you must not forget to return, because as the Czech writer Karolína Světlá said:

"If you want to feel real joy, give joy to others."