PRAGUE, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of Czechs massed in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Sunday, waving flags and chanting slogans against COVID-19 restrictions, even as infections surge.
Protesters mainly objected to harsher restrictions for the unvaccinated, including a ban on eating in restaurants.
“The state should listen to the people’s demands. The arrangements and restrictions lead us on the road to hell,” Zuzana Vozabova who banged a drum through the protest, said.
The country of 10.7 million reported its highest daily tally of cases on Wednesday – 54,689, and the numbers on other recent days have ranked among the highest since the start of the epidemic.
Despite the soaring numbers, the government scrapped a decree last week making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for key professionals and over-60s to avoid “deepening fissures” in society.
The centre-right ruling coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala has shortened quarantine and isolation times as it braced for the Omicron variant, while launching mandatory testing of employees at companies.
Hospitalizations stood at 1,989 as of Saturday, far below the numbers of around 7,000 reported during the previous peak at the turn of last November and December.
The country has reported 37,184 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, one of the world’s worst rates per capita.
LONDON: Britain reported a further 62,399 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday and 85 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, government statistics showed.
Those figures do not include cases and deaths from Northern Ireland, which did not provide its numbers in time for inclusion in the daily update, the government said.
That compared with 72,727 cases and 296 deaths reported on Saturday.
ROME: Italy reported 104,065 COVID-19 related cases on Sunday, against 137,147 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 235 from 377.
Italy has registered 146,149 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 10.9 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 19,617 on Sunday, down from 19,636 a day earlier.
There were 95 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 118 on Saturday. The total number of intensive care patients rose to 1,593 from a previous 1,588.
Some 818,169 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 999,490, the health ministry said. — NNN-AGENCIES
