The Czech Republic initially managed the outbreak of the novel coronavirus remarkably, with relatively few cases and low death rate. Its public health response was characterized by swift implementation of public health measures driven by an implicit precautionary principle, but also chaotic communication of measures and a lack of transparency in justifying individual policies. June and July 2020 have seen a rise in COVID-19 cases linked to two regional clusters but later associated with community transmission, which exposed weaknesses in the country’s test-trace-isolate system.
