Czech government close to declaring state of emergency

The Czech government is expected to announce a state of emergency on Wednesday, according to its prime minister Andrej Babis. He said this during a pre-election debate on the commercial television station Nova. There is increasing nervousness over the serious nature of the Covid-19 crisis, with daily cases having risen on a regular basis to between 2,000 and 3,000. While most of the cases are being described as mild, hospitals are warning of concerns over the amount of space they have available. Universities have already been told to shift back to online teaching regimes and secondary schools could follow as soon as this week. Babis said the state of emergency could be necessary to allow the government to take restrictive measures aimed at reducing the speed of the spread of the infection. However, a total lockdown is not anticipated at this point.