Prague calls on the general public to help fight the COVID crisis

The Czech Red Cross is offering free basic nursing courses to those who want to volunteer in hospitals

In collaboration with the Czech Red Cross, the City of Prague has called on the general public to volunteer and help relieve healthcare workers. In addition to this, it has approached outpatient and general practitioners, asking them to become more involved in the fight against COVID.

The municipality made this announcement on 3 December, after sharing that the virus is not slowing down and that healthcare facilities are beginning to reach their limits. What is worse, Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib disclosed that the city predicts hospitals will lack 300 paramedics in the second half of December. For this reason, the capital’s healthcare facilities are in urgent need of help.

“We all know that the biggest crisis will occur during the Christmas holidays. The people who would like to help do not necessarily have to be paramedics, thanks to – among other things – the free basic nursing courses organised by the Czech Red Cross,” commented Councillor for Healthcare, Milena Johnová.

Learn basic nursing skills

Everyone who is interested in helping the capital and the country fight the pandemic can attend nursing courses with the Czech Red Cross. Richard Smejkal from the Czech Red Cross commented on this, noting that the country needs everyone to get involved, regardless of their profession.

At the Red Cross courses, one can learn basic skills that will allow them to take care of sick individuals. Then, once they have received their training, they can help relieve the burden on the healthcare system by volunteering to help look after patients in hospitals.

Since 2020, the Czech Red Cross has trained more than 3,000 volunteers in the capital and 5,000 in the entire country. Of these 5,000 trainees, over 2,000 have gone on to care for sick patients.

On 2 December, Czechia recorded 21,205 new cases.