White & green republic: Covid-19 risk map revealed

The Ministry of Health published its first map dividing districts into four colour-coded categories according to the epidemiological risk.

The so-called traffic light system indicates white (no risk), green, yellow, and red areas. Currently there are no districts with a worse epidemic situation than alert level 1, marked in green. There is a total of nine: Prague, Prague-East, Prague-West, Ostrava-City, Frýdek-Místek, Brno-City, Jihlava and Prachatice.

The ministry will be updating the map in one-week intervals. The system is supposed to be primarily an information service for citizens, aiming to highlight changes in the epidemiological situation. According to the ministry, colour changes should not automatically lead to the introduction of restrictions.

When assessing the districts, about 100 parameters are evaluated. Very important is the risk of community transmission - i.e. uncontrollable spread in the population where it is not possible to determine the origin of a substantial part of the infections. Prevalence of infections among vulnerable groups, number of hospitalized people or the capacity of intensive care units are also monitored.