in havířov. the patient had had advanced cancer with metastases to multiple organs. the cause of death was established as multiple organ failure due to cancer but covid-19 infection accelerated the patient's death. a third death was reported: a 71-year-old woman died in všeobecná fakultní nemocnice in prague. the woman had the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as other illnesses, so it wasn't immediately clear that she may be covid-19 positive. only after being hospitalised the woman informed doctors that her relative recently returned from italy and was then tested for covid-19. the woman was connected to a ventilator but died three days after start of hospitalisation. apart from the uber driver on ecmo, there were 19 other patients in hospitals in serious condition, all of them connected to ventilators. 25 march – the fourth and fifth deaths were reported: the fourth death was an 82-year-old from prague with long-term chronic health problems. the fifth patient is an 88-year-old man from the central bohemian region who was at home getting treatment and had a chronic disease. a sixth patient died at thomayer hospital. the 75-year-old patient had diabetes and parkinson's disease and also had advanced heart problems. the patient had been in the hospital since january and got infected while in post-operative care. after this patient tested positive for covid-19, the hospital tested all 29 other patients in the same ward on 22 march, all negative. the test was repeated again on 25 march, this time with positive outcomes for 13 patients. several of the hospital's staff had become infected earlier, probably while taking care of the uber driver who would later become the first remdesivir receiver in the country. this patient was originally admitted with simple pneumonia without initial indication of covid-19. two of the infected nurses were hospitalised at the local pulmonary ward at the time of the sixth patient's death. the government was planning to evacuate czechs from australia and new zealand by the end of the week. hundreds of czechs still remained abroad, mainly in oceania and southeast asia. an antonov an-124 ruslan provided through the nato support and procurement agency arrived again with 24 tons of medical products purchased by the czech government in china. the shipment included 52,600 protective suits, 70,900 protective glasses, 250,000 gloves, 1.16 million respirators and eight million masks. further government purchased personal protection equipment shipments were planned for delivery with use of planes by the companies smartwings and china eastern airlines, which were contracted for nine flights per week for six weeks in advance. commuters thirty-seven thousand and 13,000 czechs live in the czech republic and work in germany and austria, respectively, large portion of that in healthcare. cross-border workers (known as pendlers) were originally exempted from the complete travel ban. as germany and austria gradually became major centers of covid-19 outbreak, the government started tightening up rules for commuters. by 26 march, czechs commuting to work in austria and germany were required to remain in those countries for at least 21 days. upon return, they would be quarantined for 14 days. czechs working in health, social services, and emergency services abroad were not subject to the new rules. the rules were eased from 14 april onwards (see policies section below). districts bordering germany and austria gradually became major centers of covid-19 outbreak in the czech republic. domažlice district reached the highest number of covid-19 positive persons relative to population size in the country. according to vice-prime minister czech government avoided closing the commuter loophole because german and austrian healthcare system in areas close to the border is dependent on czech commuters and also because government feared it could lead slovakia to close access to slovak commuters working in czech healthcare. 26 march – a taiwanese student in her twenties, who recently returned to taiwan from the czech republic tested positive for coronavirus. she left the czech republic after 8 months in the country on 19 march 2020, announced symptoms (fever, diarrhoea) to taiwanese authorities on 24 march and was diagnosed covid-19 positive on 26 march 2020. thirty-four patients were in severe condition. 27 march – despite having been quarantined already for two weeks, at least six retirement homes were hit by the spread of the covid-19 virus. authorities noted also the rising number of covid-19 positive healthcare workers. as the capacity for covid-19 testing increased, authorities eased requirements for free testing. anyone with a fever, dry cough or shortness of breath may be eligible for a free covid-19 test. 29 march – five people died. among the victims was a 45-year-old nurse from thomayer hospital, an elderly woman from a senior home in michle and an elderly woman from a senior home in břevnice. there were 227 patients in hospitals, 45 of them in severe condition. week 14 (30 march – 5 april) 30 march – in south moravia, testing of the so-called "smart quarantine" was started: local travel history of infected persons were to be tracked using data from mobile phones and bank cards. three hundred military personnel were deployed to reinforce local health authority for the purpose of tracing patients' contacts and collecting samples. if this approach is deemed successful by the authorities for diminishing the pandemic, the "smart quarantine" method is planned to replace the existing nationwide curfew policy. the city of uherský brod started thorough disinfection of all common areas of apartment buildings and public areas after a significant increase in covid-19 infections. health authority registered thirty new cases in the town. the government also issued a decree for citizens to make cloth face masks for the nation. 31 march – in a community of 72 people living in a retirement home in litoměřice, 52 positive tests were confirmed. employees of the retirement home in česká kamenice decided to stay with their clients 24 hours a day until 15 april, to avoid the seniors getting covid-19. 1 april – one month ago the czech republic reported the first coronavirus case. a second senior from the litoměřice retirement home died, as well as seniors from prague and moravia-silesia. the department of infectious diseases of the central military hospital in prague has treated covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine. eight of them have already been released for home quarantine. the evaluation of preliminary results of this therapy will be carried out in april. chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were originally used to treat malaria, but at present they also help patients with autoimmune diseases—rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus. the world health organization (who) considers these substances as one of the options to treat covid-19. supreme administrative court ruled that government decision to postpone the senate district 32 by-election due to covid-19 pandemic was illegal. according to the court, the government lacked the authority to make such a decision, as that can only be done by an act of parliament. the by-election to fill a seat after jaroslav kubera, who died of heart attack, was originally planned on 27 march and would take place on 5 june. czech aid to other countries china: on 17 february, a plane with 4.5 tons of personal protection equipment donated by czech government left from vienna to china. the plane was also loaded with hungarian, slovak and austrian ppe donations to china. china: on 1 march, a plane with 5 tons of ppe (including 780,000 pairs of gloves, 48,000 face masks and 6.800 protection suits) left from prague to china. this time the load was donated by a multitude of parties, including president's office, olomouc region, karlovy vary region, south moravian region, vysočina region, the town of třebíč and škoda auto. the donation was too large to fit into a single plane and thus there were further flights planned. those, however, did not take place, as china declined to accept the aid. italy: czech government donated 110,000 ffp2 respirators to italy on 23 march. this donation took place after czech authorities confiscated 680,000 respirators from a fraudster, who was stockpiling them in a warehouse in lovosice. according to media, 110,000 of the confiscated respirators were originally sent from china as a donation to the 300,000 strong chinese minority that lives in northern italy. italy, spain: 10,000 protective suits were donated to italy and spain each on 26 march (delivered on 30 march). slovenia: one million face masks and 200,000 ffp2 respirators were donated to slovenia on 1 april 2020. france: czech republic offered treatment of french covid-19 patients in serious condition. first six patients were to be airlifted from france on 6 april and placed at university hospital in brno. on the day of the planned airlift, however, france declined the help, stating that it is now able to better deal with the pandemic on its own. north macedonia: czech republic donated 1 million face masks on 12 april 2020. foreign aid to the czech republic taiwan: taiwan donated 25 lung ventilators to hospitals in the czech republic at the beginning of april 2020. japan: japan donated experimental drug avigan (favipiravir) for treatment of 20 patients with option to sell packages for further 80 patients on 9 april 2020. 2 april – one victim died at the general university hospital in prague (vfn); another victim was a 79-year-old patient hospitalised at the hradec králové university hospital. the government decided to extend the border control by 20 days. border checks with germany and austria will last until midnight friday, 24 april. 3 april – a public controversy has arisen around shipments of personal protective equipment that the czech government purchased and airlifted from china. on 31 march, mayor of prague zdeněk hřib publicly praised government of taiwan for donating icu ventilators to the czech republic, while pointing out that all of the equipment from china was purchased, none was donated. representatives of china's business interest in the czech republic countered by claiming that china donated personal protective equipment that was to be handed over to czech hospitals on 1 april. according to the media, czech authorities received a promise of donation of ppe; however, none have reached the country by 3 april 2020. 4 april – there were 29 infected police officers in the czech republic, 343 more were in preventive quarantine. week 15 (6–12 april) 6 april – government eased a number of restrictive measures, e.g. by opening outside sporting grounds (including skiing, shooting ranges, etc.), movement in parks and nature without face masks and opening of more shops and services (see policies section below). 7 april – government sought extension of the state of emergency for 30 days, i.e. until 12 may 2020. chamber of deputies of parliament granted extension until 30 april 2020. 12 april – government announced that it was preparing a plan for gradual lifting of remaining restrictions. government aimed at reaching maximum of 400 newly infected people a day to prevent overburdening the healthcare system. instead of general restrictions, the intended maximum number should be reached through contact tracing of positive cases (see policies section below). week 16 (13–19 april) 13 april – number of covid-19 tests sank from 8,000 a day to mere 3,200 a day during easter weekend which included also friday and monday as state holidays. according to health authority, testing capacity during easter weekend significantly surpassed demand for testing from potential patients. health authority expected the demand to rise again in the following week. 14 april – a month-long complete border closure ended (see policies section below). a large number of czech romanis started returning from particularly hit united kingdom, where many lived for over 15 years, leading to fear of possible increase of covid-19 infection. hyundai factory in nošovice, which makes 1,500 cars a day including kona electric, restarted production after three weeks' pause. ten days later, government exempted korean hyundai "specialists and key workers" needed for ramp up of electric vehicle production from cross-border and quarantine restrictions. manufacturing plants were unaffected by government restrictions; however, many had decided to close voluntarily. the czech government outlines a five-step plan for re-opening shops, restaurants and other businesses. each subsequent step will be triggered as planned only if the previous step has not resulted in a total of 400 new covid-19 patients per day. infographic for the official re-opening plan (in czech) as released by the czech government 20 april: farmers markets, tradesmen with shops,