Czech Republic scraps face mask rule as Prague hosts outdoor party
The Czech Republic has lifted a strict face mask rule credited with limiting the spread of coronavirus in the country as Prague residents marked the end of most restrictions with a dinner party for 2,000 people on the Charles Bridge.
A rule requiring masks in all indoor facilities was eased on Tuesday, though Czechs will still have to wear face coverings on the Prague underground, in medical establishments and in the north-eastern Moravian-Silesian region, where infections have spiked in two neighbouring coal mining areas.
At its peak the face mask rule required them to be worn everywhere outside the home.
The gradual return to normal was also marked by a lifting of the temporary restriction that forced pubs and restaurants to shut between 11pm and 6am.
The easing was heralded in advance by a massive outdoor dinner party on Tuesday evening on one of Prague’s most famous cultural sites, the 600-year-old Charles Bridge. Around 2,000 people – the vast majority of them Czechs – sat at a specially constructed 515-metre dinner table, stretching the length of the bridge, for an event billed by organisers as a “farewell to coronavirus”.
The event was marked by a lack of social distancing, a measure of the relaxed attitudes in Prague, which has recorded a rate of five cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.
Legendary sailors’ anthem Sloop John B sung in Czech during an outdoor shindig on landlocked Prague’s Charles Bridge - showing once more that the Czech Republic really is Europe’s Big Dog when it comes to eccentricity. pic.twitter.com/GNOj6xntce
— robert tait (@rstait) June 30, 2020
The gathering was made possible by the absence of the crowds of tourists that routinely flocked to the bridge before the pandemic prompted the Czech Republic to close its borders in March, days before most other European countries. It has since re-opened its frontiers and normalised travel to and from most EU countries, as well as Britain.
The outbreaks in Karvina and Frýdek-Místek have led to the Czech Republic reporting its highest daily infection number – 305 – since April, but officials insisted the trend was localised and not indicative of a second wave.
The Czech Republic has so far confirmed 11,954 Covid-19 cases, with 349 deaths.
