Ministry of Health Publishes First Live District-by-District Covid-19 Risk Map

According to Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová, nine districts in the Czech Republic are categorised as “Green”, meaning some basic precautions are recommended, and all the others remain “white” (low risk). Photo credit: Vlada.cz

Czech Rep., Aug 3 (BD) – The Ministry of Health has published the first live version of its district-by-district risk map of the Czech Republic, which was announced last week. The map was presented by Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová, and showed nine districts around the country in the “green” category, including Brno-City, with the others remaining “white” for low-risk.

“The evaluation is the result of a weekly summary of daily monitoring of 25 parameters,” said Rážová. “The final decision on risk categories is based on the expertise of epidemiologists and public health officials.”

Alongside Brno-City district, the other eight green districts are: Prague, Prague-West, Prague-East, Ostrava-City, Karviná, Frýdek-Místek, Jihlava and Prachatice. Although these districts are all reporting new cases, the virus is not thought to be spreading in the community.

Data and map by MZCR.

According to the recommendations published by the Ministry of Health last week, local public health officials in green districts should consider recommending the use of protective equipment and disinfectant, activating information lines, and increasing the capacity of testing stations and laboratories, as has been happening in Prague. Hospitals could also limit visits.

Citizens living in green districts should avoid close contact with people with symptoms, wash their hands regularly and avoid touching their face, keep their distance from strangers, and consider wearing facemasks even where they are not mandatory. Anyone noticing signs of respiratory illness should stay at home, limit contact with family members, and call their GP for further instructions.

According to Ladislav Dušek, the Director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS), 4,597 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in July, concentrated in Prague and the Moravian-Silesian Region. However, there have been relatively few hospitalizations; 237 people were hospitalized, 33 of them in serious condition. About half of those hospitalized were over the age of 65, with 26 in serious condition.

Facemasks will again be required on public transport in the capital, when the weather allows. Photo credit: ZM / Brno Daily.

Zdeňka Jágrová, director of the Prague Regional Public Health Agency, said that Prague will always have a higher incidence than other parts of the country, and is currently at the border between the green and yellow categories, with an average of 56 new cases per day in the last week, and an R number of between 1.29 and 1.5. She added that facemasks will again be required on public transport in the capital, when the weather allows.

The traffic light map determining the level of risk in individual districts will be updated by the Ministry every week. The risk of infection is divided into four colour-coded categories: white, green, yellow and red, which will guide the level of measures to be taken against the spread of coronavirus. 

In other developments, Romania has been re-categorised as “red” in the Czech Republic’s risk map for international travel, meaning those returning from the country will need to provide a negative test result or quarantine for 14 days.

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