The Czech Republic has reported its second successive week-on-week rise in new daily coronavirus cases and the reproduction “R” number has risen above 1 for the first time since mid-April, Health Ministry data showed on Wednesday.
The ministry said daily cases rose to 160 on Tuesday from 112 on the same day a week ago.
The numbers are much lower than the around 17,000 daily cases reported in January and March, but the “R” number indicating whether the epidemic is on the rise or decline is now 1.1.
The number of infections over the past week per 100,000 people has risen to 7.2 from a low of 6.4 last Friday.
The rise has been driven by an increase in infections in the capital Prague and in the centre of the country.
The government is due to discuss increasing testing requirements after health authorities identified 120 cases of the more transmissible Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India.
On Tuesday, the government added Tunisia, a popular tourist destination, and Russia to the list of countries where all non-essential travel is banned.
The Czech Republic was one of the worst-hit in Europe, suffering four waves of infections and 30,303 deaths.
The country has fully vaccinated 3.19 million people and had used 8.12 million vaccine doses as of Tuesday.
