Press Advisories

28. 1. 2021 21:50

The government has made adjustments to the measures, and further restrictions on the use of hotel services or contacts will be ordered from Saturday

Press conference after the government meeting, 28 January 2021.
Press conference after the government meeting, 28 January 2021.
From Saturday 30 January, crisis measures aiming to limit the spread of the covid-19 epidemic will partially change in the Czech Republic. The government of Andrej Babiš agreed at this fact at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, 28 January 2021.

The unfavourable development of the covid-19 epidemic and the threat of the spread of a more contagious mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the Czech territory is the reason for adopting new measures. The changes mainly concern the rules on the free movement of persons as well as restrictions on retail trade and services.

Therefore, from midnight on Friday to Saturday, a new condition will apply, for example, that people can travel to their cottages and chalets, but only members of one household may stay there. The government also ordered that people limit contacts with non-household members to what is strictly necessary and strongly recommended that people stay at their place of residence only with members of their own household and persons cared for by the household member, and that persons use a respirator without an exhalation valve of class FFP2 or KN95. The rules for the stay of foreigners in the Czech Republic are also being tightened.

In the area of retail trade and services, the government mainly addressed the problem of circumventing the ban on the provision of accommodation services by abusing the exception for the possibility of accommodation in the case of business trips. The ministers therefore decided that from Saturday it would be possible to provide such accommodation only to persons who can prove it with a document about the purpose of the business trip from the employer or the customer of the services. The operators of accommodation facilities will be obliged to request these confirmations and keep them for inspection.

Sales of goods in markets, marketplaces and mobile establishments have been completely excluded from the exceptions still in force. Only the operation of those mobile stores that sell food and cosmetics, toiletries and household products in municipalities where it is not possible to purchase these goods in another establishment remains allowed.

The rules for the operation of cableways and ski lifts are also being tightened. Newly, the operation of only cableways will be permitted to provide transport services within public services and ski lifts and cableways exclusively to ensure the supply or operation of critical infrastructure or for the needs of the components of the Integrated Rescue System, including the Mountain Rescue Service.

In the field of educational events, it is now newly possible to organise traffic psychological examinations under specified conditions in accordance with Act No. 361/2000 Coll., on Traffic on Roads. However, the novelty is that during the practical driving with the training vehicle within the test of professional competence to drive motor vehicles, the crew of the vehicle must use respirators of at least class FFP2 or KN95.

From Saturday, visits in healthcare facilities in acute care wards are also banned again. Exceptions will be exempted under stricter conditions for third parties during childbirth, visits to patients with limited legal capacity and visits to hospice patients and other patients in the terminal stage of an incurable disease.

The government has also approved a change in the rules for general antigen testing on covid-19. With immediate effect, the interval between tests fully covered by health insurance is reduced from five to three days. The cabinet wants to meet the needs of pendlers in particular, who now have to prove themselves twice a week with negative tests when traveling to work in Germany.

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