The Czech Republic recorded 9,721 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, setting a single-day record for a second day running, Health Ministry data showed on Friday.
“The coronavirus transmission rate is now at 1.4,” said the director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics Ladislav Dušek. The goal is to reduce it below 1.
The R number represents the average number of people each person with coronavirus goes on to infect.
The country has registered the biggest surge of new coronavirus cases in Europe, with the total number of infections detected since the pandemic hit in March having more than doubled to 149,010.
The total number of cases detected since March rose to 149,010, more than doubling in October. So far, 63,350 patients have recovered and there are 84,430 active cases.
5,000 more beds will be needed in hospitals, 700 with lung ventilators. Hospitals should limit unnecessary care, and dismiss patients as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters it was necessary to start building extra capacity and that the state would purchase 4,000 beds from hospital and nursing bed maker LINET.
Hospitals are treating six times as many virus patients as during the first wave, with other surgeries being cancelled and plans being drawn up for patients to be exported to Germany, Hungary, or Poland.
‘We can physically add beds, I expect we would get equipment as well, but there is nowhere to find personnel,’ said Martin Zatloukal, head of intensive care at one hospital south of Prague.
During this week, a record of 3,666 cases were registered in the Zlín Region. Since the beginning of the epidemic, there were 9132 infected in the Moravian region.
