The Czech government on Sunday re-declared a state of emergency for next two weeks to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in one of the European Union's hardest-hit nations.
The decision comes in defiance of the lower house of Parliament, which has refused the minority government’s request to extend the powerful tool that gives the Cabinet the extra powers needed to impose nationwide restrictions and limit people’s travel and rights, The AP reported.
The Czech Republic has had more than 1 million confirmed cases, with 18,143 deaths. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, its rate of 915 new confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks is the second worst per capita in the 27-nation EU after Portugal.
The country has also been facing a surge of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant first found in Britain that scientists now say is more deadly than the original virus. The Czech Republic's three hardest-hit counties, on the border with Germany and Poland, are under a complete lockdown. The number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in last seven days there is higher than 1,100.
The current state of emergency would have expired on Sunday. The government could use other legal options to reimpose some coronavirus restrictions but not all of them.
Without the state of emergency, bars, restaurants and cafes could reopen Monday, service businesses could resume, the nighttime curfew would end and a ban on more than two people gathering in public would be cancelled.
The government warned that the restrictions are needed to keep the country's outbreak from getting worse and causing the health system to collapse. Sunday’s move comes at the request of the leaders of all 14 Czech regions, who say they do have not enough powers to fight the pandemic.
The governors also requested changes in the government’s approach to the pandemic, including a mass testing of employees financed by the state, a gradual return of children to schools in March and new legislation that would define the state's responsibilities in fighting the pandemic.
