Friday news summary

Covid update

There were 14,780 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Czech Republic on Thursday, which is about 2,900 less than on Wednesday. According to revised data, the epidemic index PES remains at 86 points today, the third day. The government has decided to keep the current anti-Covid restrictions corresponding to level five of the PES system at least until January 22. We wrote more about it HERE.

The army has sent another 200 soldiers to help hospitals

Today, the army sent another 200 soldiers to help hospitals or sanitary facilities. They will help them manage the crisis surrounding coronavirus infection. To date, the army has deployed 850 troops in 120 facilities and locations. In addition to medical and social facilities, soldiers in four call centers help summon potentially infected people, form collection teams and help with clever quarantine. Last year, the military provided 15,000 soldiers to help fight the coronavirus infection.

Fewer people died on Czech roads last year

On the roads in the Czech Republic, 460 people died in accidents last year, which is 87 less than in 2019. At the same time, this is the lowest number of victims since 1961, when police officers began compiling comprehensive accident statistics. The reason is the coronavirus crisis, which significantly reduced traffic last year, especially in the spring. This was stated by Deputy Police President Martin Vondrášek at today's press conference.

2020 was the warmest year ever

2020 was the warmest year in Europe. Globally, it levelled the record year of 2016, the EU service Copernicus reported. In Europe, last year was on average 1.6 degrees warmer than the 30-year average from 1981 to 2010 and 0.4 degrees warmer than the record year of 2019. Globally, last year's temperature was at the same level as 2016. Temperatures thus averaged 0.6 degrees higher than in the reference period 1981 – ⁠2010. According to a report by Copernicus, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has also risen again.