Coronavirus: Czech schools and bars shut in partial lockdown

The Czech Republic is imposing a new three-week partial lockdown from midnight (22:00 GMT) to combat coronavirus, shutting schools, bars and clubs and restricting restaurants to deliveries and takeaways.

Kindergartens will stay open and special provision will be made for the children of critical care workers.

University dorms are also being closed temporarily.

The country has Europe's highest rate of infection, adjusted for population.

The shutdown will last until 3 November, under the new rules agreed by the Czech government on Monday.

Public consumption of alcohol will be banned until then.

In its report for 13 October the EU's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that confirmed new Covid cases in the Czech Republic in the past 14 days totalled 55,538 - higher than the 42,032 in neighbouring Germany, whose population is eight times bigger.

By Rob Cameron, BBC correspondent in Prague

There's a touch of Kremlinology to interpreting the official Covid response here. Statements must be viewed through a prism of political realities, in a land governed by a coalition of rivals.

But every so often a statement is so sobering it is difficult to dismiss it as point-scoring. On Monday it was provided by Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek: "80,000 active cases is a problem, 120,000 is the point of no return. We're now at 61,000."

Those cases are now rising faster than anywhere else in Europe.

Mr Hamacek has been among those calling for a full lockdown; the new rules have instead been described as "soft lockdown". But will they be enough? The sense amongst those who must obey them is no.

And if this isn't enough, and Mr Hamacek's warning of "mobile morgues in car parks" becomes true, who is to blame?

Not, it seems, Prime Minister Andrej Babis. The man accused of overruling tougher measures in September was asked if he now felt a sense of responsibility for the country's current predicament.

"No," he replied, at the close of an increasingly testy online press briefing. "My conscience is clear."

There have been 1,051 deaths from Covid-19 in the Czech Republic since 1 March, when the country identified its first cases.

The highest number of deaths in one day - 52 - occurred on Friday, the daily Ceske Noviny reports.

Under the tighter measures school lessons will continue at home via the internet.

Catering outlets will only be able to serve customers with deliveries and takeaways, until 8pm.

Masks, already being worn in shops and on public transport, will also have to be worn at tram stops and on train platforms.

The maximum for people gathering in a group, whether indoors or outside, will be six.

In March the Czech Republic was quick to impose a strict lockdown, shutting its borders and making mask-wearing compulsory.

But in late June restrictions, including compulsory masks, were abandoned and a huge dinner party was held on Prague's Charles Bridge to celebrate the so-called end of the coronavirus crisis.

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