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Czech coronavirus cases top 1,000 in a day for first time
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Residents dine at a 500-meter-long table spanning across the length of the medieval Charles Bridge as restrictions ease following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Prague, Czech Republic June 30, 2020.The Czech Republic reported on Wednesday a record one-day spike in COVID-19 infections, with 1,164 new cases, as it battles a surging spread of the coronavirus. (REUTERS/David W Cerny)
T
he Czech Republic reported on Wednesday a record one-day spike in COVID-19 infections, with 1,164 new cases, as it battles a surging spread of the coronavirus.
Daily case figures have regularly come in above 500 so far in September, already well above a previous daily peak of 377 in March during the first wave of infections.
Czech authorities, which acted quickly to impose a strict lockdown in March to halt the spread of the virus, are keen to avoid taking that costly route again after the economy shrank by 11% in the April-June period on an annual basis.
The spike in Czech cases has been among the fastest in Europe, with infection rates over the last two weeks only faster in Spain, France, Malta, Romania and Croatia, according to the European Union agency European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The Czech pace is roughly three times that of neighboring Germany.
However, the death toll in the Czech Republic has remained lower than in many other European countries, with 441 fatalities reported as of Wednesday out of a total of 29,877 cases since the start of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations have risen in the past week but are still half the levels seen earlier in the pandemic. The government says many new cases are asymptomatic and among the younger population.
