PRAGUE, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic will start putting together emergency field hospitals for COVID-19 patients, Interior Minister and Central Crisis Staff head Jan Hamacek said on Thursday.
"On Saturday, the construction of capacities in the Letnany exhibition center should begin. The capacity is 500 beds, the construction will be provided by the army," Hamacek was quoted as saying by the Czech News Agency (CTK).
Military and health care workers will staff the new field hospital, he said.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that the state would purchase 3,000 regular hospital beds and another 1,000 critical care beds from nursing bed maker LINET.
"We don't have time, the outlook is not good. These numbers are catastrophic," Babis said before leaving for Brussels for a European Union meeting on Thursday.
Top officials' push to secure more hospital beds came with a grim forecast by experts.
Biochemist and Charles University vice-rector for science and research, Jan Konvalinka, said that existing models put the country's hospitals at full capacity by the end of October, but the current trend in the epidemic in the country is "worse than pessimistic scenarios had forecast," according to a Czech Radio report.
According to Konvalinka, people who catch the virus this week may not find a hospital bed should they need it.
On Wednesday, the country reported 9,544 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily count ever, according to the Health Ministry on Thursday. The total number of COVID-19 cases now stands at 139,290.
Starting on Wednesday, the Czech Republic imposed tougher measures to battles one of Europe's highest COVID-19 spikes. Schools switched to remote learning as of Wednesday except for kindergartens and special schools for the disabled, according to rules announced on Monday by the Health Ministry.
Other measures already in force include closing all restaurants, bars and clubs and banning gatherings of more than six people. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is banned in public places. It is now mandatory to wear face masks at outdoor public transport (train, tram and bus) stops in the Czech Republic.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), face masks should be used as part of a comprehensive strategy of measures to suppress COVID-19 transmission and save lives.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreaks in early 2020, wearing masks in public has been widely accepted in Asian countries like China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam to limit the spread of COVID-19. Enditem
