Czech Republic faces 'hellish days' - February 24+ Czechs ask Germany, Poland, Switzerland for help

[sharon sanders]

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

9:34 AMUPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Czech Republic faces 'hellish days', needs tighter COVID measures, PM says

By Reuters Staff

2 MIN READ

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic must tighten measures to combat the pandemic and prevent a “catastrophe” in hospitals in the coming weeks as the country faces one of the world’s highest COVID-19 infection and death rates, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday.

The country reported over 15,000 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest daily tally since Jan. 6, and has the fastest spread rate in Europe, with per capita infections more than six times higher than in neighbouring Germany in the last two weeks.

The number of hospital patients with COVD-19 who are in serious condition has risen to a record 1,389, leaving few spare beds in the country of 10.7 million.

Some hospitals have had to transfer out patients while the health minister has warned hospitals risk being overwhelmed in the coming weeks. The government is looking at asking Germany for help with some patients.

more...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-czech-idUSKBN2AO1UU

[kiwibird]

https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/27/...-variant-surge

Strict measures have been taken - especially to minimise the movement of people - with a surge in the UK variant.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/28/e...ntl/index.html

On an epidemiological map of the world, the Czech Republic shows up as a tiny island of doom and gloom. While the global number of new coronavirus cases has been dropping for six consecutive weeks, the Central European nation of 10 million has been experiencing near record levels of new infections.

A new, more infectious variant of the virus has spread across the country, pushing Czech hospitals to the brink of collapse. The country's death toll has just surpassed 20,000. Its death rate is among the highest in the world.

[Vibrant62]

See https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...c?country=~CZE

[Vibrant62]

I hope there is some sequence analysis going on - it is an isolated hotspot in Europe, so we need to consider the possibility that the UK (or other) variant has taken hold, or its possible that there is a novel Czech variant in play.

[sharon sanders]

Czechs ask Germany, Poland, Switzerland for help with COVID-19 patients

By Robert Muller, Jiri Skacel

3 MIN READ

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic has asked Germany, Switzerland and Poland to take in dozens of COVID-19 patients as the situation in its own hospitals has reached a critical point, Prague’s Health Ministry said on Friday.

snip

A number of hospitals have declared a “mass casualty event”, meaning not all patients may get the standard of care they would normally receive.

more...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-czech-help/czechs-ask-germany-poland-switzerland-for-help-with-covid-19-patients-idUSKBN2AX1E3?il=0

[kiwibird]

https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/czech-weekend-news-in-brief-top-stories-for-march-7-2021

The Czech Republic reported 9,066 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 4,000 fewer than on Friday, but 1,200 more than a week ago, according to the data released by the Czech Health Ministry released this morning. The death toll has risen to 21,717.
...
Former Czech president Klaus recovering from COVID-19

Former president V?clav Klaus exited his compulsory quarantine for COVID-19 on Friday, the spokesman for the V?clav Klaus Institute, Petr Macinka, has told journalists. Klaus, 79, is an opponent of the lockdown measures and he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He tested positive for coronavirus on February 23.

[kiwibird]

https://apnews.com/article/poland-coronavirus-pandemic-czech-republic-germany-prague-2b47c0245d9aaacc96325ae1c73e36b5

PRAGUE (AP) ? With record numbers of COVID-19 patients filling up intensive care units in the Czech Republic, the first patient to be moved outside of the country was transported to southern Poland on Tuesday.
....
Pardubice was the first entire region of the country?s 14 to declare last week intensive care units in its five regional hospitals were overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients in serious condition and it could not take any more. The Plzen region in western Czech Republic followed suit, while a number of individual hospitals elsewhere have to transfer their patients to clinics across the country.

[sharon sanders]

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