The mayor of Prague, Babiš, blames the second wave of the pandemic in the Czech Republic. According to him, he has changed professional measures, he wants the government to deal with the impacts

Prague is by far the worst affected Czech region in the covid-19 pandemic, accounting for about a fifth of the daily nationwide growth in the number of infected, and on some days it has a larger share. However, at the meeting of the Minister of Health Roman Prymula (for YES) with the Prague councilors, no new concrete measures were discussed that should change this. “We have been told that they are not currently planning to introduce further measures in the field of cultural or sporting events. However, they want to monitor the effectiveness of current measures, “said the mayor of Prague after the meeting.

However, Hřib is concerned about the development of the disease in Prague, as more and more people with a serious course are on the rise. “Currently, 91 beds are available for ARO or ICU, which is 11 percent of the total capacity. It’s together – those who were set aside for covid were not. Eleven percent is not much, “he pointed out.

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However, negotiations with Prymula showed that some of these beds were “blocked” by patients who no longer have immediate problems. “They no longer have acute problems, they could be released for home care, but for various – usually social – reasons this is not possible. We have offered maximum cooperation for Prague, “said Mayor Hřib.

In case the beds run out, Prague has an emergency solution ready – patients would find facilities in gyms or boarding schools. “We have them ready in case the army asks us to, for example, but it’s not a matter we want to get into,” the mayor emphasized.

However, he also considers it essential to adequately equip the beds in these areas and, above all, to have staff with them. “The beds only work if they are occupied by staff who can also become infected,” he said.

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Closing schools on the horizon? The ministry will not give us time to prepare, the mayor expects

Last week, the mayor of Prague announced that preparations were under way for the introduction of distance learning at secondary schools in the city, which he soon denied again. Only Prague universities switched to distance learning. According to Hřib, it was a misunderstanding. “I spoke that day with both the Prague Hygiene and the Ministry of Education, as well as the Ministry of Health, and I became convinced that it was a matter of us going to introduce distance teaching in secondary schools as well,” he said.

However, the mayor did not rule out that the interruption of full-time teaching at secondary schools in the city could occur. He is going to have another meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Health, but also education and the schools themselves, where he wants to make sure that they are really ready for the transition to distance learning.

“The moment the ministry decides on something like this, we will definitely not have a week to organize other things,” Hřib said.

Compensation to entrepreneurs is the responsibility of the government, says Hřib. The prime minister considers the situation to be to blame

Measures against the spread of coronavirus, such as the mandatory closing hours in restaurants or the restriction of mass events, also have an impact on businesses. This spring, Prague compensated them for the outages with the European money at its disposal, but according to the mayor, they have already run out and do not want to take it from their own budget. According to Zdeněk Hřib, the responsibility for compensating entrepreneurs for what they have come lies solely with the government. He also considers its chairman to be the main culprit of the situation.

“Prague, as the only city in the Czech Republic, cannot rehabilitate the consequences of economic measures, nota bene in a situation where the situation is due to the fact that the prime minister changed professional measures at the last minute,” said the mayor.

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