Several deputies from the ANO Movement and the Social Democrats (CSSD) have been ordered into quarantine following contact with the ANO deputy Karla Šlechtová, who has tested positive for Covid-19. According to a spokesman for the lower house of the Czech parliament, hygiene measures are being applied in the chamber, and all deputies who have been in contact with Šlechtová have been informed. Photo credit: PSP.cz.
Czech Rep., Aug 25 (BD) – Several deputies from ANO and CSSD have been quarantined by hygienists after being in contact with ANO MP and former Defence Minister Karla Šlechtová, who tested positive for the virus on Sunday. As the length of quarantine is still currently set at 14 days, the affected deputies should be able to attend the next meeting set for September 15th.
The last meeting of parliament took place last Wednesday. Roman Žamboch, director of the Press Department of the Chamber of Deputies, told Seznam Zprávy that the lower house would be taking hygiene measures, and that several deputies sitting in the immediate vicinity of Šlechtová had been ordered to quarantine by hygienists, and will be tested first.
The room will also be disinfected. “The management of the Chamber informed all employees who could have come into contact with the MP to consider how long the contact lasted and, if necessary, to contact a hygienist,” added Žamboch. “As this happened last week and no parliamentary bodies have been sitting in the meantime, all quarantine measures now taking place are at the level of those who came into contact with Ms. Šlechtová.”
Among the quarantining deputies there are also CSSD representatives, who sit in a row behind the ANO deputies. Jan Chvojka, the chairman of the CSSD deputies, told Seznam Zprávy that they had two deputies in quarantine, but did not want to divulge their names.
Although the standard length of quarantine was due to be shortened from 14 to 10 days from yesterday, the change has been postponed by a week at the request of the Ministry of Health, and will go into force from September 1st. According to Roman Prymula, the government’s representative for science and research in healthcare, the ministry decided to introduce the change at the same time as other regulations regarding facemasks, from September.
