At an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, 18 March 2020, the government approved several new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. It is introducing a ban on any movement outside one’s place of residence without protective respiratory equipment. At the same time, for senior citizens over the age of 65, a time has been reserved for food shopping, from 10.00 to 12.00. Those “commuting” to work abroad will be subject to stricter curfew rules.
At today’s extraordinary meeting, the government ruled that from 19 March 2020 people are prohibited from moving around outside their homes without protective respiratory equipment. Protective devices include surgical masks, respirators, face masks, scarves, head scarves or other means of preventing the spread of droplets.
As of 19 March 2020, the government has banned the presence in retail food stores from 10:00 to 12:00 of all persons other than senior citizens over the age of 65. Owners and employees of these stores are exempt from this. “Of course, our pensioners are the most at risk and we are concerned for them. We have therefore decided that starting tomorrow only pensioners may buy foodstuffs from 10:00 to 12:00. We still have to add drugstores and pharmacies to this, the Minister of Health will be preparing that today for the government’s approval tomorrow,” explained Andrej Babiš.
The operation of Czech Railways long-distance trains is now to be temporarily restricted. These restrictions will apply to 6.6% of train journeys. The reductions will affect 39 out of a total of 589 trains operated on a state-contract basis.