This article provides daily updates on the situation in Brno and South Moravia. Photo credit: Freepik / For illustrative purposes.
Brno, Mar 16 (BD) [updated 6:15 PM] – The South Moravian Region (JMK) now has 21 confirmed cases of Covid-19. “There has been a significant acceleration in the outbreak, with another 10 cases of COVID-2019 confirmed in the last 24 hours in the South Moravian Region,” said Renata Ciupek of the JMK Regional Hygiene Authority.
Ciupek gave further details of the cases in the region: “A total of 21 cases have been confirmed in the South Moravian Region between March 11th and the present. Most are in good condition with light symptoms, in home isolation. They are twelve men and nine women, all adults. The patients are not concentrated from one place.”
The number of potential cases tested in the JMK has already exceeded 350. Anyone who is not contacted within 72 hours of being tested by the staff of the Regional Hygiene Station, has tested negative. “For capacity reasons, it is no longer possible to provide an individual service; from now on, we will only contact those with positive test results, where it is necessary to ensure immediate and sufficient anti-epidemic measures,” explained Ciupek.
Due to the spread of the coronavirus infection, hygiene officers placed several locations in the Olomouc region in total quarantine on Monday morning, including Unicov, Cervenka and Litovel. Later, the measures were extended to 18 other towns and villages in the region. Residents cannot leave, and entry is forbidden for at least 14 days, with the exception of essential cases. The measure affects a total of around 24,000 people.
According to the Czech Ministry of Health, as of 6pm, there were 344 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Three people have recovered. The Czech government declared a nationwide quarantine yesterday; you can find more information in our Coronavirus: Round-Up of Quarantine Measures on March 16th.
Brno Kindergartens Close
From March 17th, Brno kindergartens and children’s groups (public and private) will be closed. At the request of the Czech Government, the city proposed to allocate Waldorf Elementary School and the kindergarten at Plovdivská 8 to provide care for children of emergency services employees (Czech Police, Czech Emergency and Rescue Service and Fire Departments), medical staff and municipal police. These proposals were handed over to the South Moravian Region for approval. Furthermore, Brno City Council decided today that babysitting will be organised for children of these employees (contacts and further information). Similar measures are being adopted by other Czech cities.
Masks on Public Transport in Brno
As part of emergency measures issued by Brno Mayor Marketa Vankova (ODS), travel on public transport in the city will now be allowed only if passengers have their mouth and nose covered. The measure is valid from tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17th. Passengers can use respirators, masks, or any alternatives, such as scarves.
Starting Wednesday, March 18th, bus and trolleybus timetables will be switched to the holiday schedule. For the time being, trams, the backbone of Brno’s public transport network, will run as usual.
In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus and to protect drivers and passengers, the city bus service in Znojmo is running free of charge from March 16th until further notice. The city also launched a new website on Monday: opatreniznojmo.cz (Czech). The City of Brno is publishing regular updates on the situation in Brno here: brno.cz/coronavirus (English).
Testing at FN Brno
On Sunday, Brno University Hospital (FN Brno) announced that from now on it would be using purpose-built tents to test not only patients sent by the Regional Hygiene Authority, but anyone who arrives alone with a fever of 38°C and above (find out more here). At around 4pm on Monday, the hospital said that they would revert to testing only those sent by the Regional Hygiene Authority, as the capacity of the special tents was already full for the rest of the day.