Czech Republic Expecting to Wake up to End of Worst Pandemic Rules

Residents of the Czech Republic went to bed on Sunday hoping to wake up in a country not under a state of health emergency for the first time in half a year.

However, although the health restrictions put in place due to the pandemic were being relaxed, they were not entirely disappearing from a country that was for a time, one of the world’s worst-hit nations.

For example, the CTK news agency pointed out that night-time curfews would no longer be enforced, but other restrictions would remain, keeping many restaurants and businesses shuttered for the time being.

People were also required to continue wearing medical facial coverings in public.

The state of emergency went into place on Oct.5, and was renewed multiple times after that.

However, the legislature recently refused any further extensions in spite of calls by the government to maintain limits on individual’s movement because of fears the disease might start spreading again and overwhelm the country’s medical system.

However, the rates of new infections and deaths have increased of late, which likely weighed on legislators’ minds.

According to the European Centre for Disease Control, the number of new infections per 100,000 residents for the last 14 days was at 808.75 as of Sunday.

The death rate per one million residents for the same period was 210.1.