From success to catastrophe / The three decisions that made the Czech Republic a “pandemic failure”

The Czech authorities managed to manage the coronavirus outbreak quite well initially, drawing attention to their success. But now that the global number of new cases is declining for six weeks in a row, this Central European nation of 10 million is experiencing dramatic levels of new infections.

A new, more contagious variant of the virus has now spread across the country, bringing Czech hospitals to the brink of collapse. The number of victims just exceeded 20 thousand. The mortality rate is among the highest in the world today. Normally there was no reason for the Czech Republic to be hit so hard, being considered a relatively wealthy EU member state and for that, the party has access to vaccines, medical equipment and tracking technology, while also having a good health system. Miroslav Zabransky, director of the hospital, thinks the problem is the duration of the pandemic.

“Went too long and employees are tired. We are working with the maximum capacity of the beds. We also served with the staff, which means that for several months, we had no reservations at all, we all worked“, Writes the director of the hospital, Miroslav Zabransky.

But looking at the problem more broadly, CNN says the Czech catastrophe today owes even more to dozens of wrong or delayed decisions. Dr. Rastislav Maar, dean of Ostrava University medical school and one of the country’s leading epidemiologists, points out the three key decisions that caused the current crisis.

The first came when the government overburdened its advisers, including Macari himself, and refused to reinstate a masked mandate in the summer; the second when he decided to reopen stores before Christmas; and the third when it failed to react to the new variant that appeared in early January. “These were three big mistakes and now, we are just praying that there is not a fourth“, He says.

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