Coronavirus COVID-19: Information for Students and Employees

The library remains open in an effort to provide maximum support to students and academics, doctors and healthcare professionals in access to study materials and information resources. Please check the library website. If you have any questions, please contact us at @email or call 224435853.

From tomorrow, students and educators of public higher education institutions can use temporary online access to the collections of the National Library and public higher education institutions. More than 206,000 titles of monographs and periodicals will be made available, which is over 59 million pages.

Address for Kramerius application: https://kramerius.nkp.cz

 

I am sending this announcement following the Czech government’s decision to declare a state of emergency on Thursday, March 12, 2020, beginning at 14h00 and to last 30 days, a response to the health crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus (usnesení vlády České republiky č. 69/2020 Sb., ze dne 12. 3. 2020, kterým byl v souladu s čl. 5 a 6 ústavního zákona č. 110/1998 Sb., o bezpečnosti České republiky).

Studies

Importantly, the conditions set within the state of emergency will not impact measures adopted by Charles University earlier this week concerning pedagogical, scientific and research activities. All three will continue uninterrupted – the only thing that is changing is the form of education and other activities.

In response to your questions, let me emphasise that individual forms of teaching and education, such as consultations, individual laboratory work, and so on, are not affected. Likewise, individual and state exams will also continue. In terms of the state of emergency, care must be taken not to exceed a ban forbidding groups of more than 30 people meeting.

Deans of Charles University faculties may agree to exceptions for students or staff who volunteer to help in the face of the crisis. Currently, the university and the Health Ministry of the Czech Republic are negotiating the possibility of 5^th and 6^th year university medical students helping health care services during this period.

Students and staff abroad

Charles University is focussing on students and staff who are currently abroad for study or work reasons (including students and staff in the United States). The university will make an announcement about developments on Friday.

Dormitories and refectories

Dormitories remain unaffected but with lower demand or need, output at refectories will be lessened beginning next week. The university will release more details on Friday.  

If you have any questions, please address those to Charles University’s crisis team at @email

We are continuing to monitor developments and will inform you without delay about new steps should the situation change.

Allow me to extend my thanks to all of you for your efforts, cooperation and calm and rational approach. Together, we will get through this difficult period.

Charles University is interpreting the Ministry of Health’s resolution (č. MZDR 10676/2020–1/MIN/KAN) from March 10, 2020 as a ban aimed at countering the spread of Covid-19 among students and staff in classrooms. It is by no means a sign to give up on or discontinue pedagogical activity or learning.

 A complete ban on university activities would mean that students in their final year of studies would be left at a marked disadvantage and would be unable to complete their education. Such a decision would negatively impact, for example, students of medicine soon to be entering the workplace. It is therefore essential that pedagogical, scientific and research activities at Charles University continue as before. The form of delivery has changed for the time being - from presentational to distance learning – but that is all.

The university workplace

It is paramount that all Charles University sites and workplaces remain open. Individual workplaces are not shutting down; simply, researchers and other staff are shifting the bulk of their pedagogical activities but will offer the same through distance learning. Individual forms of teaching, consultations, individual laboratory work can continue as before to meet goals set by individual faculties.

Currently, we are discussing the issue of student training at university hospitals with the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

Study checks

Individual exams are continuing without change. Study checks ie. testing of large groups have been discontinued until further notice (for example, written exams) Individuals tests – such as state exams – have not been affected.

Dormitories and refectories

Dormitories and refectories are operating as normal but with heightened hygiene measures. We are asking students not to gather in larger groups and to focus on self-education. We are leaving it up to students to choose whether to return to their families’ homes but appeal to them to rationally consider the move so as not to put older relatives (grandparents or great grandparents) at risk.

Should you have any questions, please address those to Charles University’s crisis team at @email 

We are continuing to monitor developments and will inform you without delay about new steps should the situation change.

Thank you for your cooperation, continued dedication and a calm and rational approach.

Charles University’s rector has issued an order prohibiting all students and other participants from attending class regardless of type of study or classes (presentational, long distance or combined) as of Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The order is in accordance with a decision by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic in response to the threat of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The possibility of long-distance study is recommended.

• As of 18h00 on Tuesday, March 10, ALL ceremonial activities at Charles University (including all degree or graduation ceremonies) are hereby cancelled.

• As of 18h00 on Tuesday, March 10, ALL symposia, sports events and other gatherings where attendance is expected to be higher than 100 people, are cancelled.

Individual faculties as well as university bodies are advised to carefully consider the need for any event involving up to a maximum 100 participants.

This order was issued at 11:45 on March 10, 2020.

More details to follow.

The Ministry of Health issued a new extraordinary measure on 6 March 2020 with a view to the significant spread of the COVID-19 disease in Italy (approximately 4,000 cases) and the fact that the predominant number of persons infected in the Czech Republic contracted the disease while staying in Italy.  According to our information, there are presently some 16.5 thousand Czechs in Italy.

With immediate effect, all persons having their permanent residence in the Czech Republic who return from Italy to the Czech Republic from 7 March 2020 forward are ordered to immediately report this to their general practitioner, by telephone or other remote means of communication (mobile application, e-mail, skype, etc.), i.e., without personal contact.

Furthermore, general practitioners are ordered to impose a quarantine of 14 days upon any person who has his or her permanent residence in the Czech Republic and returns from a stay in Italy to the Czech Republic after 7 March 2020.

All students and employees of the Second Faculty of Medicine are due to respect this extraordinary measure.

Futher information from the leadership of the Second Faculty of Medicine, more specific for our students and employees, will be issued as soon as possible.

1. Students and employees who over the last 14 days have been in high-risk areas with proven community transmission of the virus (mainland China, Iran, defined isolated cities in northern Italy, mass events in the Venezia and the Lombardy regions ...) and at the same time have no clinical signs of disease (fever above 38 °C) , cough, shortness of breath ...) are instructed to stay in home quarantine.

Students are obliged to announce the above-mentioned fact to their respective officer of the Study Department (emloyees to their direct superiors) without delay, by e-mail or telephone (not in person!). In the form of affidavit, they should announce the place and date of their stay in high-risk areas, and the place they will stay during the quarantine. Individual cases of student quarantines, if any, in connection with the fulfilment of study obligations or longer abseces, will be assesed and solved with maximum student-friendliness.

In case of development of clinical symptoms, students and emloyees should contact their attending general practitioner, and their next steps should be based on the guidelines published by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

2. Employees and students are advised not to travel to high-risk areas as defined by the EDCE and the most current statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (in this case concerning the whole of Northern Italy). In this context, students and staff are not sent on business or study trips to these areas.

3. The aforementioned steps were prepared after consultation with and on the basis of the suggestions of Dr Zdeňka Jágrová, the director of the Anti-Epidemic Department of the Hygienic Station of the City of Prague, on 2 March 2020 at 3 p.m. and will be continuously updated.

The Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic recommends that travelers monitor their health condition for 14 days after leaving a region affected by coronavirus, paying close attention to symptoms of incipient respiratory illness (fever above 38 °C, respiratory problems). If symptoms of respiratory illness are present, it is recommended to stay at home, to limit contact with other people, and to contact your doctor over the phone, who will coordinate further treatment in cooperation with the regional hygienic station.

Currently, a flu epidemic is still active in the Czech Republic, and thus it can be expected that if you have not traveled to high-risk areas and are showing signs of a respiratory infection, it will most likely be a case of a regularly appearing infection. In this case, we recommend that you stay at home and, depending on your condition, contact your attending GP. If epidemiological criteria are not met (a visit to the high-risk areas in the last 14 days or contact with a proven COVID-19 infectious person), you will not be tested for SARS-CoV2.

• The situation concerning the current outbreak of COVID-19 is continuously monitored by the Ministry of Health, which works closely with experts from both the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Ministry of Health has prepared an informative summary for citizens, which is continuously updated.

• Current information can be found on the website of the National Institute of Public Health.

• Statistics concerning new cases, the numbers of persons recovered or died from the disease in particular countries can be found here.

• Current information regarding traveling to high-risk areas can be found on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

• Charles University is also closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation. For questions concerning the coronavirus, you can email the specially designated account @email and can call +420 224 491 850. If the situation in the Czech Republic becomes significantly more complicated, Charles University will follow regulations set by the responsible authorities. More information, including a selection of web pages where you can find up-to-date, trustworthy, and verified information regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) can be found here.

• Click here for up-to-date information and recommendations from the Academic Senate of the Charles University for students or staff who have come from China, Italy or have come into close contact with persons infected with coronavirus.

Coronavirus guidelines and information in English:

• https://cuni.cz/UKEN-1260.html

• https://cuni.cz/UKEN-379.html?news=9474&locale=en