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A new hotel has opened up in Prague which offers accommodation to COVID-19 positive guests. Targeted at clients who have mild or no symptoms but want to avoid infecting others, it is based around an entirely contactless system. Its management says that if the concept proves successful, it is ready to open similar hotels across the capital.

Communist Party MP Jiří Dolejš is demanding the Czech Army’s planned budget to be cut by 10 billion crowns, and the savings put into an emergency reserve fund that could be drawn on to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He has signalled that otherwise the minority government, which relies on Communist support, could be in for a heated battle over the 2021 state budget.

A new start-up aiming to help the country’s theatres, hard hit by the anti-coronavirus measures, was launched in the Czech Republic this week. The streaming service, described as “Netflix for theatres”, provides on-demand, recorded versions of theatre performances. Within the first 48 hours, Dramox has already attracted several thousand subscribers.

“Catastrophic“, “alarming”, “dramatic”, those are just some of the adjectives used to describe the deepening coronavirus crisis in the Czech Republic. Politicians, doctors and data specialists have appealed to the public to adhere to the tight restrictions intended to help avert a disastrous scenario. However opinion polls indicate that a third of Czechs are still refusing to wear face-masks where they are compulsory and many consider the government-ordered lockdown to be over the top.

The Czech government has announced a severe tightening of restrictions on business and public life in response to the growing increase in new coronavirus cases and hospitalisations affecting the country. Starting on Thursday, non-essential shops and small businesses will have to close, employees must work from home whenever possible, and people's activities will be limited.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the young Czech-English photographer Ray Baseley travelled throughout Europe shooting festivals music and shows for pioneering electronic music giants such as The Chemical Brothers and New Order, and the Soulwax spinoff 2manydjs. But his day job, so to speak, has long been as a coordinator for various civic initiatives and political protest groups, such as Kaputin, A Million Moments for Democracy and most recently We Stand Behind Belarus, which works to support activists there and help inform Czechs about their plight.

For the first time in history, the coveted title of Czech ‘Tree of the Year’ has gone to one bearing fruit: a humble apple tree in the courtyard of a village inn near the Polish border. The U Lidmanů inn in the village of Machovská Lhota, in a valley by the Bor Mountain, has been in continuous operation since the late 19th century. The courtyard apple tree is of the tart Kožená Reneta variety, beloved by locals as a source of shade in the summer, and strudel in the autumn.

The Czech Football Association is currently being rocked by what could turn out to be the biggest scandal in the modern history of Czech football. Its deputy chairman, Roman Berbr, has been arrested and is facing charges of largescale game-rigging along with 18 other individuals. The Football Association has since announced Mr. Berbr’s resignation along with that of the entire referee committee and promised to reform the system.

A statue of the 18th century Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, who was also the only queen of Bohemia, was officially unveiled in Prague on Tuesday. The large minimalist-style statue, which resembles a large bell, stands in a newly-established park bearing the Empress’s name in the vicinity of Prague Castle.

A new museum dedicated to architecture has recently opened in the town of Kladno, presenting a visionary housing project from the 1950s. The unique housing estate and its six tower blocks, originally named “Victorious February” after the 1948 communist coup, was designed in the early 1950s by Josef Havlíček, a representative of the most avant-garde trends in the Czechoslovak interwar architecture.