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The Czech Republic which started inoculating people against Covid -19 late last year, has thus far respected the recommended interval between the first and second dose. Now the health minister says the country must extend the interval in order to save lives.

In Český New York (Czech New York), Martin Nekola describes how the community in Manhattan dissipated after the war, as many Czechs moved out to Astoria and elsewhere. However, the book also documents the fresh influx of notable post-war émigrés to the Big Apple, including some of the leading names in Czechoslovak culture. We discuss them – and in particular the story of actor George Voskovec – in the second part of this two-part interview. But I began by asking Nekola about an earlier Czech community far from the bustle of the city, in a place they named Bohemia.

Billionaire Petr Kellner, a dominant figure in Czech business in the country’s post-1989 period, died in a helicopter crash in Alaska at the weekend. Tributes have been paid to the 56-year-old, whose business empire extended around the globe.

This Saturday marks exactly 25 years since the visit of the British monarch to the Czech Republic. Elizabeth II, accompanied by her husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, came at the invitation of the late president Václav Havel and was the first British monarch to visit the country.

A year after the Covid pandemic hit the country, the Czech Republic has the highest number of Covid deaths per capita in the world. On the sad anniversary of the first Covid death-on March 22-  bells tolled around the country and close to 25, 000 crosses drawn in chalk appeared on Prague’s Old Town Square –one for each victim of the pandemic. Since then the square has become a place of mourning where people come to say a prayer and pay tribute to loved ones.

A group of prominent art historians, architects, conservationists and others in Brno have joined forces to stop what they call the rampant demolition of historic city buildings. Due to registration errors before the Velvet Revolution, and new zoning, they say, buildings that were or should be designated as cultural monuments are not being protected.

Zdeněk Miler’s famous Krteček (Little Mole) is not the only cartoon character to come out of the country’s animated film studios. Bob and Bobek – the Rabbits from a Hat, The Tales of Moss and Fern, Maxipes Fík and The Oddsockeaters are cartoons classics that have delighted many generations of Czech children.

Up until now people in quarantine with Covid -19 or those ordered to self-isolate as a preventive measure have been very much “on their honour” in complying with the regulation. Now hygiene officials and police officers have been tasked with making random checks of people in quarantine to make sure they are observing the restrictions imposed.

The 2021 national census gets underway this weekend. Not only Czech citizens but also foreigners with permanent residency or living in the country for more than 90 days as of the start date must complete the survey – or face a fine of up to 10,000 crowns. However, for many whose mother tongue isn’t Czech, the process is easier than ever before. Both despite and because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Czech researchers have become the first in the world to use fish scale samples to map the changing quality of water. A new study, published in the prestigious international magazine Science of the Total Environment, shows that fish scales are a reliable source of information about human impact on the water ecosystem.