Current Affairs | All stories

Three weeks ago, a member of the Russian intelligence community traveled to Prague with a suitcase containing the highly potent toxin called ricin, possibly to be used against Czech politicians who have angered the Kremlin, the weekly Respekt reported last week. Moscow has since denied the news, but the Czech Foreign Office has warned Russia that there would be consequences if anything were to happen to the concerned individuals.

This year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will not take place, the organisers have just announced. But while the next edition of the country’s biggest cinema event won’t go ahead until July 2021, some of programme planned for this year should still – on a far smaller scale – reach domestic audiences in the summer. I discussed the decision to cancel with KVIFF’s artistic director, Karel Och.

A new survey suggests that close to a half of Czechs fear economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Official unemployment numbers remain relatively low, but may in fact be considerably higher, if surveys are to be believed. And while the government has implemented relief programmes, their practical effect has come under criticism from opposition MPs and the private sector.

The world-renown Prague Zoo partially opened to visitors on Monday, as part of a gradual easing of measures put in place to contain the spread of coronavirus. For the moment, the number of daily visitors is capped and indoor exhibitions and pavilions remain roped off. While the Czech public is definitely excited to see the animals, especially new arrivals, zookeepers say some animals are also keen to see people.

Thousands of Czechs – far more than anticipated – turned out at temporary coronavirus testing sites on Thursday to take part in a study aimed at determining the incidence of Covid-19 in the population. In response, the Ministry of Health has extending testing for the ‘collective immunity’ study.

The Czech government has ended a ban on free movement brought in to curb the coronavirus epidemic, while citizens are now allowed to leave the country once again. At the same time, a plan to restart sections of the economy will conclude in late May, two weeks sooner than previously announced.

In response to the latest developments, the Czech government has made a series of revisions to the measures put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19. The state of emergency, in place since March, is set to end on April 30 and the dates for the gradual reopening of the service sector have been revised. Below is an overview of the measures still in place and the dates of further planned changes.

The City Nature Challenge – an annual, global community science competition to document urban biodiversity through amateur photography and the iNaturalist mobile app – gets underway this Friday. Last year, Prague ranked 40th out of some 159 cities, with nature-lovers in the Czech capital documenting nearly 1,000 species of flora and fauna.

The latest coronavirus figures, released at a press conference on Thursday morning confirm beyond doubt that the COVID 19 epidemic is in decline. Epidemiologists have given the government the green light to start easing restrictions on movement and business faster than originally planned.

While most Czechs are currently confined to their apartments, due to the coronavirus lockdown, two adventurers from East Bohemia have been “forced” to spend their quarantine on their sailing boat in the Caribbean. They are hoping to continue on their journey around the world as soon as the anti-coronavirus measures are lifted or relaxed.