Prague and its surroundings do not have to be considered one district, said Hamáček
Updates: 03/23/2021 15:50
Released: 23.03.2021, 11:49
Prague-Minister of the Interior Jan Hamáček (CSSD), after consultation with the Ministry of Health, did not comply with the request that Prague, Prague-West and Prague-East be considered as one district for the purposes of measures prohibiting movement between districts. He told CTK’s question. On Friday, Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) and Central Bohemian Governor Petra Pecková (STAN) request an exception. The governor told ČTK that she respects Hamáček’s decision, even though it doesn’t give her much logic.
“According to experts, this would have to be too high a risk at a time when the epidemic trend is reversing and there is hope for rapid improvement,” Hamáček said. The application was modeled on the districts of Brno-město and Brno-venkov, which are considered to be one.
Pecková na twitter in the afternoon she published Hamáček’s decision. According to the Minister, the districts of Prague-West and Prague-East are sufficiently equipped in terms of basic services and sports activities. “For the citizens of the districts, there are larger settlement centers, with offered shopping opportunities as well as civic amenities, accessible individual and public transport, in a time-at-availability meeting the standards common in the Czech Republic,” he said.
According to him, the exceptions were given to a location where the application of the measure would be either impossible or would be an unsuccessful burden or complication for the citizens. “To date, six such exceptions have been accepted,” Hamáček added in the justification.
“If the epidemiological ones did not support it, then I accept it as the Central Bohemian Region. We will not contradict it any more, it does not give us too logically, because some areas are more interconnected than we might think, and thousands of people flow to work across the border every day, “Pecková told ČTK. She also mentioned cases where people can’t shop to their usual store because it’s outside the district.
Due to the worsening of the epidemic situation, the government has tightened measures since the beginning of March to increase the spread of coronavirus. People are not allowed to travel between districts, except on the way to work, to doctors or even to the office. The regulation originally required to spend free time, including walks in the countryside in the village, the cabinet recently amended the measure and free time can be spent throughout the district.
To continue the measure, the government needs a state of emergency, the extension of which it asked MPs after March 28. The measures now apply until the end of the emergency. If the state of emergency continues to apply, the Minister of Health Jan Blatný (for YES) will propose to the government that the strict rules take effect at least until the end of Easter. Easter Monday will be April 5 this year. The government in the Chamber of Deputies has not negotiated support for extending the state of emergency. Most of the opposition has already announced that they will not support it.