2020
Official advice on hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette has been frequently communicated since 27 February 2020, when the Minister of Health called for a meeting of the Central Epidemiology Committee (see section 5). A government resolution issued on 15 March 2020 recommended physical distancing (2 metres distance) [1], which was made obligatory on 24 March and became recommendable on 15 June (for more details, see Section 1.2: Physical distancing) [2].
In early April, people reported Czech TV to be the most common source of information (36%), followed by online news sources (33%) and webpages of the government, regions and other state authorities (13%) [3]. During the spring height of the COVID-19 crisis, there were regular government press meetings broadcast live. The Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Chairman of the Central Crises Staff, and Chairman of the COVID-19 Central Management Team announced most measures and updates. A special COVID-19 MoH webpage (www.koronavirus.mzcr.cz) was built to display all relevant information on the pandemic, including the information on outbreak severity (number of performed lab tests, infected people, currently hospitalized, recovered, deceased, etc.) [4]. There is also a special government webpage that shows all government resolutions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the fight against it [5]. A special information hotline (1212) was set up shortly after the declaration of the state of emergency to accommodate all communication related to the disease. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry, it provided information on business matters including business premises closures, on health and health care, hygienic and preventive measures, social care services and socioeconomic issues, cross-border movement, and transport. On 1 July 2020, a new information hotline (224 972 222) was created by the Ministry of Health. The new line is a permanent MoH line providing information on all health and healthcare related issues, not only COVID-19 related, operating on regular weekdays’ working hours [6]. In the spring, the State Public Health Institute operated three other 24-hour information hotlines on COVID-19 issues. Since 1 September 2020, the MoH has introduced a new COVID-19 health-related information line (1221), which is served by trained medical students.
Since the epidemiological situation has improved in the Czech Republic during May and June 2020, the press conferences of the Ministry of Health and IHIS, which were initially held weekly at the height of crisis, now take place only once every few weeks. Government press conferences are currently more concerned with economic consequences, mitigating the financial losses of the pandemic and restriction measures rather than strictly health communication.
With the start of the new school year in September 2020, the epidemic began to rise again. General and expert public (including the Chamber of Commerce, for instance) complained the government and state authorities’ communication was confusing at that time: for instance, the reinstating of protective measures was not clear and frequently changed. The introduction of the so-called traffic lights for district infection transmission risks in August (see Section 5.1: Governance for details) seemed not to help the situation. An illustrative example to poor communication was the reintroduction of face masks obligation in August and early September 2020 (see Section 1.2 Physical distancing). There is continued criticism of experts on the lack of publicly available data by state authorities and ÚZIS (Institute for Health Statistics and Information) for not sharing the relevant data with experts and researchers.
By mid-October 2020, the epidemiological situation was the worst in Central Europe. The dissemination of news and crisis management measures was delegated to the Minister of Health. The public trust in state authorities declined dramatically, reaching 40.7% in mid-September 2020 compared to 61.9% in June 2020 (index of confidence in state apparatus, National Pandemic Alarm project [7]). Being aware of the dismal situation, the MoH announced (16 October 2020) that the Minister’s press briefings would be reinstated three times a week and more data would be publicly available.
In late October 2020, the Minister of Health Mr. Prymula (in office from 21 September to 29 October 2020), had to leave his office and was replaced by Jan Blatný. Despite the political turmoil around Mr. Prymula leaving office, this seems not to affect public trust in state authorities, which remained close to 50% after the October 2020 recovery following September’ ministerial change [8].
A new official information portal (covid.gov.cz) was launched as a pilot on 6 November 2020. The project came alive within two weeks and informs on different aspects of the pandemic, ranging from scientific information on the virus, to current preventive measures, quarantine and isolation rules, state economic support to businesses, and various life situations, for example, children in distant schooling, students dealing with dormitory rules, etc. [9].
On 13 November 2020, the MoH presented the new Antipandemic System, called PES (ProtiEpidemický Systém, or “dog” in literal translation). It has five levels, assessing the risk of infection transmission on a scale from 0 to 100 (based on various indicators such as 14-day average number of new cases, new cases within seniors, the R0, and test positivity rate). The system shall provide a district-level assessment of risks and associated restrictive measures. Nevertheless, the system clearly states that releasing the restrictive measures is a longer process after a stable low indication. As of 16 November 2020, the whole country is in the highest (5 – purple) level, though the 13 November 2020 risk score was 70, that is, falling within the level 4. On 23 November 2020, the fourth level was declared, leading to small restriction release (see Section 5: Governance) [10].
The National COVID-19 Testing Coordinator, who also leads the Laboratory Expert Committee at the MoH (in charge of National Testing Strategy), resigned in early December 2020 as a result of disagreements with the latest political decisions of the MoH.
2021
The vaccination strategy and related communication strategy are the responsibilities of the National Vaccination Coordinator at the MoH. The first coordinator, the former head of the State Institute for Drug Control, resigned on 25 January 2021 after only two months in office. The new coordinator is an MoH officer and head of the international affairs department.
As of mid-March 2021, the official communication campaign on vaccination promotion still had not begun, and the MoH instead declared that it might be launched by the beginning of April 2021.
In January 2021, the MoH ran an open call for applications for a newly created position: MoH Covid and Vaccination Spokesman – a position that should be responsible for media communication. The selected candidate decided not to take this job on 1 March 2021, and thus the position remained unoccupied.
Communication from the government remained confusing for the general public regarding tightening or loosening of restrictive measures in the winter months. For instance, serious plans and preparations were made to allow in-person schooling for selected grades (those in their last years of elementary and high school), only to result in an announcement just days before opening the schools, that, instead of re-opening, all schools (including the previously open kindergartens and first and second grades of elementary schools) were to close starting 1 March 2021.
On 4 March 2021, the Prime Minister admitted in the Parliament that the government does not have a plan for what will happen after 21 March 2021, when the national lockdown should end, causing further general public uncertainty.
In mid-March 2021, the new Chief Medical Officer (who is also a Deputy Minister of Health) was appointed without any reasonable explanation from MoH as to why the previous one was dismissed.
April through June 2021
On 7 April 2021, after five months in office, Minister of Health Blatný was dismissed. There were movements in the public opinion and his leadership became a political issue when Mr. Blatný stated he would not, as a Minister of Health, allow Sputnik V for vaccination unless it gains the EMA approval. His successor as minister, Mr. Arenberger, was appointed the very same day.
On 21 May 2021, Mr. Arenberger was dismissed (after only six weeks in office) due to inconsistencies in the declaration of his assets, and the former Health Minister Adam Vojtěch, who had resigned in September 2020, was appointed to the position again. He is the fifth Minister of Health during the pandemic. During April and May 2021, there were also several changes of deputy ministers of health following corresponding changes of health ministers.
The communication campaign on vaccination promotion was finally launched on 12 April 2021. Its main theme was “Let’s make a dot behind the coronavirus” and the government has released CZK 50 million for it. As of mid-May 2021, CZK 28 million had been spent and more focus on younger generations has been announced.
The Antipandemic System PES, presented to the public in November 2020, was gradually abandoned during the end of winter and early spring 2021. In late March 2021, the need to develop a new system for tightening or relaxing pandemic measures was declared, and the government started using
- the number of patients at the intensive care units,
- weekly averages of cases and
- the test positivity rate at that time.
On 22 April 2021, the government presented “packages to return to normal life” strategy, the first of which was implemented on 12 April 2021 (the State of Emergency ended on 11 April 2021). The measures were to be announced by the MoH Extraordinary Measures, approved by the government, and were supposed to observe, as a primary criteria, the newly detected cases incidence per 100 000 inhabitants over the preceding seven days [11]. Later, some of the measures were relaxed earlier than the previously set criteria, generally to the disagreement of the MoH expert group.