The Czech government put the country on lockdown on March 16, just two days after it shut all stores, restaurants and shopping centers. The decree bans all unessential movement outside, which in practice means that people will be allowed to go to work, to buy food and to visit public offices but should otherwise go home. The ban on shopping will be a huge blow to all segments of the retail property sector, but office buildings, logistics buildings and factories are not affected by the move. Public transport will continue to run because as prime minister Andrej Babiš put it the country has to continue functioning. However, only one person per family is supposed to go shopping at a time in an attempt to reduce the number of people in individual stores. The ban on store openings, which took effect March 14, applied to all non-essential items but allowed grocery stores, drugstores and pharmacies to remain open. Stores selling computers, telephones and IT equipment were allowed to remain open, in part because increasing numbers of employees are being asked to work from home and some require equipment to do so. By morning of March 16, the country had 293 confirmed cases of the virus, up from 31 a week ago.
