Czech shopping malls will be opening up to the public for the first time in months, following a steep decline in the number of new Covid-19 infections. The stores had been shut since October as the country’s successes in handling the first wave of the pandemic were replaced with a massive wave of new infections that threatened to overwhelm hospitals and health workers. Retailers were hit hard by the new lockdown and pressure had been rising to allow the economy to open up again in order to take advantage of the last three weeks of Christmas shopping. At the same time, however, the government will ask parliament to approve an extension of the state of emergency, which would otherwise end on December 12. “From our viewpoint, the development of the pandemic is satisfactory, the number of infected people is falling, which is good news. But it’s not falling as quickly as we would like,” said vice premier Jan Hamacek, adding that it’s unlikely the threat level will be reduced from the current 3 to level 2 any time soon. If the state of emergency were to end on December 12, numerous other restrictions would have to be abandoned. “There would be an uncontrolled opening up which I consider to be a huge risk,” said Hamacek.
