The Czech Health Ministry officially announced on Twitter that restaurants and organisers of mass events will not be able to accept antigen tests as proof of being negative for COVID-19. Only PCR tests would be accepted.
In addition to PCR tests, confirmation of vaccination, as well as proof or recovery from COVID-19, will also be recognized.
The new measures should be effective from 29 November.
According to Vojtěch, the so-called “Austrian” model, ie that coronavirus tests would not be recognized at all, was rejected by representatives of the future government, who had already formed an AntiCovid team before the elections.
“They do not want to go the way of fighting the epidemic as in Austria, but they agree to the abolition of self-tests and antigen tests,” wrote Vojtěch.
“We call on the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic to maintain the OTN system by abolishing self-tests. It will retain antigenic assays only if PCR testing is not available. The PCR test would continue to be valid for 72 hours and the antigen test for 24 hours,” wrote the representatives of the AntiCovid team.
Nechtějí jít cestou boje s epidemií jako v Rakousku, ale souhlasí se zrušením samotestů a antigenních testů, pokud je pro PCR dostatečná kapacita. A ta je. Respektujeme jejich pohled a na pondělní vládu proto půjdeme s opatřením, které zavede OTN jen s PCR testy.
— Adam Vojtěch (@adamvojtechano) November 13, 2021
Laboratories in the Czech Republic registered 14,199 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday, nearly 5,000 more than on the same day last week and the second-highest number recorded this week.
According to Health Ministry data, the Czech Republic presently has on average 660 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the space of seven days.
The number of people hospitalized with Covid is now over 3,800 with 550 of them in intensive care. Friday was 36 people died with Covid, bringing the total epidemic death toll up to 31,431.
