car shops and showrooms, outdoor athletic areas for professionals, without spectators, weddings of up to 10 people following hygiene rules 27 april: shops under 200 square metres in size, except for those in shopping centers over 5,000 square metres and those specified to open at a later date. 11 may: shops under 1,000 square metres in size, except for those in shopping centers over 5,000 square metres and those specified to open at a later date, driving schools, gyms and fitness centers (but not changing rooms or showers) 25 may: outdoor areas of restaurants, cafes, pubs, buffets, wineries and beer shops with outdoor sales and garden seating areas, barbershops, hairdressers, nail salons, tanning salons, cosmetic salons, massage parlors, museums, galleries, and art halls, zoos (outdoor areas only) 8 june: all shops in shopping centers, shops over 1,000 square metres in size outside of shopping centers, indoor areas of restaurants, cafes, pubs, buffets, wineries and beer shops, hotels and other accommodation providers (and their restaurants and cafes), taxi services, tattoo and piercing studios, theatres, castles, chateaux and other cultural activities according to the current regulations, mass events for a specified number of people, cultural, business, and sports events for less than 50 people, weddings following specific hygienic protocol, indoor areas of zoos the aforementioned timeline was not kept as government significantly accelerated lifting of restrictions in the following weeks, with most being lifted by 11 may. week 17 (20–26 april) 22 april – prime minister andrej babiš announced that the government will not request the chamber of deputies of the parliament to extend the state of emergency beyond 30 april. meanwhile, minister of interior announced that he will seek further discussion of the topic, claiming that state of emergency is crucial for government's ability to fast procure and distribute personal protection equipment outside of standard lawful procurement process. the court determined that the fact that measures were not adopted by the government under the crisis act powers, but by ministry of health under the protection of public health act, leads to violation of constitutional guarantees of separation of powers. when adopting measures under the crisis act, the government is continually under the supervision of the chamber of deputies of parliament. under art 5(4) of the constitutional act on the security of the czech republic, the chamber of deputies can revoke the state of emergency at any moment. thus taking away government's power to adopt crisis measures under the crisis act, including those that violate basic rights. adoption of the measures by ministry of health under the act on protection of public health frustrated this control by the chamber of deputies. in effect, the respondent impermissibly restricted constitutional powers of the chamber of deputies.— judgement of the municipal court in prague no. 14 a 41/2020, section 152, from 23 april 2020 23 april – the municipal court in prague invalidated some of the restrictions adopted to battle the covid-19 spread. in particular, the court invalidated ministry of health protection measures that introduced curfew, banned hospital visits and banned selected retail sale and services. the court held that such wide restrictions of basic rights may be adopted only under the crisis act by the government as whole and not under protection of public health act by the ministry of health alone. both the curfew and retail sale ban were originally adopted by government resolutions on 14 and 15 march, respectively; however, then they were replaced by ministry of health protection measures from 24 march onwards. the court invalidated these measures from 27 april onwards, giving the government three days to remedy the situation. the ministry of health may lodge an appeal to the supreme administrative court. on the day of court's decision, there were suits against 17 other measures still pending. while ministry of health protection measures may be adopted indefinitely, government measures under crisis act may be adopted only for period of state of emergency. government may declare state of emergency for period of 30 days, any prolongation requires assent of the chamber of deputies. 24 april – in line with the decision of the municipal court of prague, the government announced that it would seek chamber of deputies' consent to extend the state of emergency until 25 may. at the same time the government announced a faster roadmap for the lifting of restrictions. week 18 (27 april – 3 may) 28 april – the government sought an extension of the state of emergency until 25 may 2020. the chamber of deputies of parliament granted an extension until 17 may 2020. week 19 (4–10 may) 6 may – the ministry of health presented the outcome of the covid-19 prevalence study conducted over the previous weeks. out of 26,549 people (volunteers and vulnerable groups with chronic diseases) tested for the presence of anti-bodies, the countrywide testing identified only 107 people with antibodies who were previously undetected. this showed a high success rate of contact tracing and quarantine measures and a very low rate of virus presence in the general population. week 20 (11–17 may) restaurants closure during pandemicbetween 14 march and 10 may 2020 restaurants could serve patrons only by direct delivery or through a takeaway window (doors).between 11 and 24 may 2020 restaurants could also serve patrons at their outdoors premises. state of emergency ended on 17 may. extraordinary measures either ended or were extended beyond the state of emergency with lesser restrictions. according to ministry of health, the main aim going forward was to achieve three main objectives: prevent hospital overcapacity in order to be able to provide necessary care to all patients with covid-19, including non-hospitalised. the main aim is to preserve czech covid-19 mortality at 2–3% as before and to prevent its rise to worldwide average of 7% or french mortality of 18%. prevent "explosive spread" of covid-19 that would (a) include spread of more aggressive types of covid-19 or (b) higher concentration of covid-19 in body, as those lead to more dangerous development of illness. further lower mortality as better knowledge about covid-19 and use of promising experimental drugs like remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine becomes available. a court ordered pre-trial detention of a first person charged with spreading of covid-19. a 32-year-old woman was arrested for movement at a public space without a face mask, although she had been personally ordered to remain in quarantine. despite quarantine order, the woman used a taxi and visited a shopping mall. the woman was jailed at a hospital ward of brno prison. if convicted, she may be sentenced to up to 8 years' imprisonment. week 21 (18–25 may) a new major covid-19 hotspot emerged in the city of karviná. over 150 workers became infected at a black coal mine where miners work in tight shafts as deep as 1,000 metres underground. authorities expected the number to significantly rise further as the workers' family members were likely to become positive later. among those infected were also many foreign workers from poland, where coal mines became hotspots in previous weeks. health authority planned to conduct testing of all 2,400 workers within three days. czech army deployed six medical teams to assist local authority in collection of samples and contact tracing. as of 22 may, up to 40% of infected miners had no symptoms with many others reporting tiredness as the only symptom. meanwhile, a school was temporarily closed down in nearby city of havířov after a child of one of the miners tested positive. apart from the coal mining hotspot, authorities deemed situation in the rest of the country as stable, except for prague where they identified several small clusters with community spread. week 23 (1–8 june): further lifting of restrictions, opening of borders most restrictions have been lifted. borders were reopened and events of up to 500 people allowed. week 27 (27 jun – 5 jul) 1 july – okd suspends mining in karviná area following covid-19 outbreaks. in the čsm mines, 704 of the 3,403 employees tested were positive for covid-19. that equates to 20.7 per cent, but the vast majority of them had no or only very mild symptoms of the disease. week 30 (20–26 jul) 23 july – an outbreak of coronavirus linked to a music club in prague has increased to 98 cases, including footballers from several of the city's clubs. czech republic reported 247 new cases on wednesday, the highest number since a spike in late june in karvina. to combat an uptick in coronavirus cases in the country, institute of health information and statistics presented the czech regional traffic light rating system, which has four levels. timeline august–october 2020 week 35 (24–30 aug) 27 august – uk removes czech republic from list of "green" countries. travellers arriving from the czech republic will have to quarantine from 0400 hrs on saturday, the uk government has announced. the czech pm andrej babiš nixes the preventive face mask regulations established by health ministry, which were supposed to come in place when children return to school after the holidays on 1 september. masks will now no longer be needed anywhere in schools, with the exception of schools that make it to the "orange" level of medium-risk for covid-19 in the czech republic's regional health map. masks will need to be worn on public transport, inside healthcare environments, and polling stations. week 36 (31 aug – 6 sep) 1 september – 257 new cases reported. mandatory to wear face masks on public transport, public indoor areas (such as shopping malls, offices, post offices, offices) and indoor public events, regardless of the number of visitors. schools are excluded from the restrictions. schools re-open across the country week 37 (7–14 sep) 10 september – 1,161 new cases. number of new cases has now exceeded 1,000 for the past two days. face masks will be required in all indoor spaces throughout the czech republic from today. there are a total of 25 exceptions to that requirement, including when eating or drinking in restaurants, exercising in gyms, or working in an office at least two meters away from others. schools, kindergartens and playgrounds are excluded from restrictions belgium has placed prague on its list of "red" risk zones, requiring a mandatory two-week quarantine on arrival for incoming travellers from the czech capital. week 38 (14–20 sep) 18 september – the czech republic reported more than 3,000 cases in a single day for the first time the wearing of face masks is now mandatory in all interior spaces of universities. kindergartens and primary schools and playgrounds remain regularly open, where no face masks will be needed. week 39 (21–27 sep) 21 september – czech health minister adam vojtěch has unexpectedly announced his resignation. roman prymula will become new czech health minister. prymula predicted that the daily number of covid-19 cases in czech republic will soon reach 6,000–8,000, after hitting a high of over 3,000 cases in the previous week. 25 september ladislav dušek, director of the institute of health information and statistics (úzis), announced that in the first two weeks of september, almost 400 teachers in czech schools became infected with covid-19. dušek also stated that from the beginning of the epidemic until mid-september, workers in administration and engineering, the unemployed, and the self-employed were the groups that got infected most often. the number of infected healthcare professionals has also grown significantly recently. according to data published by the czech medical chamber, 259 physicians became infected up until 19 september. however, just a month earlier it was four people. among nurses, the number of people infected increased from three to 433 from 20 august. week 41 (5–11 oct) 5 october – the czech republic comes under a state of emergency. indoor events with over 10 participants will be prohibited, the same applies to outdoor events with over 20 participants. professional sport matches will be without spectators and can be attended by a maximum of 130 athletes, coaches, and other members of the staff. concerts, theatre performances, and other artistic performances and festivals involving a significant amount of singing, including rehearsals are prohibited. there is a 100-person limit on the attendance of religious services, at which singing is also prohibited. limit of 30 people for weddings and funerals restrictions will also apply to the number of people sharing one table at restaurants and other catering facilities