Doctor's waiting room. Illustrative photo.
Prague – Patients with acute respiratory infections in the Czech Republic slightly increased compared to the previous week. Doctors reported 1,363 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The highest morbidity is in the Pardubice and South Moravian regions and the lowest in Prague, mainly regional outbreaks remain. The State Health Institute (SZÚ) informed about this in a press release today. According to data from the Ministry of Health, the number of people tested positive for the coronavirus causing covid-19 has also been increasing since mid-January.
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“Although the incidence of influenza type A is decreasing in Europe, the circulation of influenza type B is increasing. This is also related to the current slight increase in morbidity in the Czech Republic. The situation can continue to be considered regional outbreaks of respiratory diseases,” said Jan Kynčl, head of the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the SZÚ .
According to the SZÚ, the number of sick people increased last week compared to the previous week in all age groups except for seniors over 65, where the number of sick people increased already last week. “A significant increase in the number of sick people was recorded in the Karlovy Vary region, where the number of sick people increased by almost 30 percent (…) and further in the Moravian-Silesian region, where there was an increase of more than a quarter,” said the SZÚ.
Between hygienists classify acute respiratory diseases as various types of viruses, including influenza and the causative agent of covid-19. According to the SZÚ, the overall incidence of influenza has decreased by 7.5 percent, while it is 10.5 percent higher among the adult population aged 25 to 64.
While the data that the hygiene stations and the SZÚ report every year during the flu epidemic come from the reports of general practitioners, for covid-19, every positive test performed by a medical professional is included in the statistics. On Monday, February 13, there were 1,405, which is the most in three months. However, experts estimate that there are many times more people infected with covid-19 than tested. People often do not go to the doctor with symptoms that are currently very similar to the flu or another respiratory virus. In the last week, one in four tested for covid had a positive test, at the beginning of this year it was one in ten.
Development of the epidemic of acute respiratory tract infections in the Czech Republic:
| Week | Number of reported cases per 100,000 inhabitants | Change (%) | Positive tests for covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants per week (diag. test positivity) | Change (%) |
| 7 . week 2023 | 1363 | + 4.3% | 53.5 (24.5%) | + 48.2% |
| 6. week 2023 | 1307 | – 3.1% | 36.1 (20.1%) | + 42.7% |
| Week 5 2023 | 1349 | – 0.15% | 25.3 (14.9%) | + 38, 6% |
| 4. week 2023 | 1351 | – 4.7% | 18.3 (11.7%) | + 7.6% |
| 3. week 2023 | 1417 | – 12.1% | 17 (10.7%) | – 5.6% |
| 2. week 2023 | 1611 | – 17.6% | 18 (9.2%) | – 32.6% |
| 1. week 2023 | 1956 | + 10.5% | 26.7 (9.4%) | – 34.9% |
| 52. week 2022 | 1770 | – 26.3% | 41 (13.9%) | – 19.8% |
| 51. week 2022 | 2403 | + 3% | 51.1 (16.4%) | – 10.7% |
| 50. week 2022 | 2334 | + 33.1% | 57.2 (18.7%) | + 8.7% |
| 49. week 2022 | 1754 | 52.6 (19.6%) |
Source: State Health Institute + Ministry of Health – covid-19 data
