The LockedDown Project

Czech Republic
Faculty of Economics, University of Economics, Prague

Report on Analysis of Your Country Surveys
Supporting Organizations:

University of Economics, Prague

Data Collection Period:

6/2020-8/2020

Language(s):Czech

Total Number of Surveys:

2728

Surveys analyzed:

2728

Ethics Approval:

Y/N – LSE used

Authors:

Helena Chytilova, Associate Professor,
Department of Economics, Faculty of
Economics
Acknowledgements: I would like toexpress my special thanks to Universityof Toronto team, Duncan, A., Eftekhar,
P., Nowrouzi-Kia, B., Othman, N., fordata extraction and provision of clean
data set.

1.0 Executive Summary (max 1000 words)
The COVID-19 pandemics has changed substantially the world economy, affecting heavily
economic performance of many countries. Governments struggle with new lockdown measures
to combat the disease, well aware of the wider economic, social and other consequences of the
lockdown. In this context, an assessment of the impact of lockdown in various areas has
become an important necessity with an upward-sloping trend among scientific community,
which can reveal interesting outcomes and address important economic and policy
implications.
Based on cooperation with London School of Economics and Healthbit.com, our report
evaluates impact of the Covid lockdown on academic community, (students and the staff) in
Czech academic environment. More specifically it focuses on educational, professional andfinancial lives, including mental, social and physical wellbeing at University of Economics,
Prague in the Czech Republic. The “Lock down survey” was conducted in academic
community in order to gather the data for the analysis. This report seems to be of greatsignificance, since during the first lockdown the Czech Republic was one of the top countries
in the world at controlling the spread of the virus, not mentioning the fact that it was the first
country, which set the requirement to wear facemasks everywhere and by everyone outside of
the home. As a result, we believe that our report might bring about interesting implications
even in the context of contemporary situation, in which Czech Republic has become one of theworst countries in terms of new cases of Covid per capita.
2728 respondents participated in the “Lock down survey” at University of Economics, Prague,out of which majority of participants were students (2399), followed by academics (227) andnon-academics (101). Most of the people 1788 (67,5%) live in a large city and age structure is
ranging from 18 till 90, where 2144 people are under 30 (78,59%), which is caused by major
share of students in the sample. Gender structure is as follows: 1605 (62,16%) females, 949(36,75%) males and others being the rest.
1371 (64,46%) of participants was working prior to pandemic and 294 (21,48%) of participants
indicated full time employment and 1075 (78,52%) part time employment. Most of theparticipants 1837 (71%) are in the middle income group, followed by high income group 371(14,37 %). 2245 (87%) of participants has no underlying health condition. Just negligible share
13 (9,92%) indicated themselves as business owner/self employed/entrepreneur, half of whichclaim that their business was negatively impacted by Covid, but 77% also think that it hasbrought some positive impact and for 39% the business is more stressful. 95% of peopleindicate that they are not having financial difficulties as a family, 27% are anxious about theirjob security and 6,82% lost their job.

Lockdown has not affected movement heavily, since 1854 (75,37%) of the people remained intheir residency. Most of the people 1624 (66%) agree that despite their social life was impacted
they don´t consider Covid as a major issue, with just 427 (17,36%) saying that the impact was
substantial. It seems that Covid lockdown has rather improved 385 (15,61%) or has not affected
relationships 928 (38%), since only 201 (8,17%) of the people responded that their relationshipsuffered or fell apart 59 (2,4%). It appears that Covid has limited access to physical products
or services only partially, since just 701 (28,5%) of the people indicate that they had problems.
The same holds for access to medicines/health services-187 (27%) of respondents and accessto food and other necessary goods- 216 (30,81%) of respondents. However limited access topersonal/professional/domestic services is indicated by 453(65%) of respondents.
Exercises are pursued sufficiently just by 531 (21,6%) of the people and 511 (20,79%) of thepeople don´t exercise in a way they want. On the contrary, lockdown has incentivized 680(27,66%) of the people to exercise more.
Almost half of the respondents indicate that the level of the stress remained the same over 5
weeks period. It seems that the length of the horizon determines, how people evaluate an
intensity of the stress. The longer the horizon, the lower is the proportion of the people who
consider an increase in the intensity of the stress experienced and the higher is the share of thepeople, who consider decrease in the intensity of the stress experienced.
Nearly half od the sample indicates that the quality of life status has stayed the same over 5
weeks period. The length of the horizon is decisive for the lowering share of the people who
consider the decrease in life status. However, the share of the people who consider the increasein the life status remains the same over time.
Depression and anxiety are not relevant for two thirds of respondents over time. Just 30% on
average felt depressed or anxious over time with the falling share over time to 24%. Just 3
people 2,29% indicated that they need social/psychological/physical support.
For this sample 1020 (42%) of the people consider the lockdown to be beneficial out of which
70% indicate that they have more time for hobbies/family, 551 (54%) had more time for selfeducation, 172 (17%) started/joined new projects/initiatives/jobs (paid/unpaid). Just 396 (18%)
people indicate to have troubled relationship with people they live and 38 (1,73%) experienced
domestic/psychological abuse during pandemic. 263 (12%) was responsible for childcare
during pandemic and 102 (39%) state that childcare significantly impacted theireducation/work.
Covid-19 symptoms were not experienced by majority of the people 2234 (92%), negligible
share of the people (11) were tested and were positive and 24 people lost someone close due to
Covid.
Online teaching was practiced by 2064 (90%) of the academics after the closure of theuniversity out of which 344 (15% of the people were unable to continue to work and 330(14,4%) of the respondents lost their job/part time employment due to pandemic.

2166 (94,5%) of the people think that their university progressed with the exams and maderelevant arrangements and 1968 (86%) claim that exams were not postponed/cancelled. 1924
(84%) think that university was supportive and offered services, which enabled academics tocontinue with their work/education. 614 (27%) consider online learning/teaching to be great,1305 (58%) consider it to be possible, but only as a complement to standard teaching, 203 (9%)
consider it to be not good.
The survey results from academic sphere support the fact that Czech society was welldisciplined and widely respected adopted measures during lockdown in March 2020 onwards.
Majority saw it as some temporary state, in which case the lockdown is a necessity to stick tocurrent measures in order to come back to normal life.
However, survey results indicate some portion of induced uncertainty, anxiety and stress in thecontext of government measures implemented in many areas of life, which were unexpected,
lagged or non-transparent. Also, respondents noted that media panics intensified this situation.
Still, results suggest that positive vibrations prevailed over negative, where people tried tomake most out of it by improving family relationships or by replacing lockdown idleness byother demanding activities such as completion of long-term projects, (diploma thesis) or
pursuing alternative meaningful activities such as learning new language or taking exercises.
Also, it seems that financial distress and job security distress is so far negligible in academic
sphere. Furthermore, results reveal that students have mostly ambivalent attitude to online
teaching and consider it rather as a complementary part of standard teaching. Still appreciation
is present for the ability of University to progress with online teaching, the exams and to makerelevant arrangements.
Although lockdown measures contributed substantially to the fact that Czech Republic was on
top list of the countries with lowest Covid rates, the survey results based on first lockdown
experience and also contemporary bad situation in 2021 speak in favor of the following
recommendations:-enhance transparency, communication, provide evidence-based rationale for regulation,induce motivations of people to obey regulatory measures in the long term, start a campaign
leading to popularization of respective measures and aimed to enhance credibility of thegovernment-reduce excessive information-enhance quality of the government crisis management-and evaluate efficiency of regulatory measures ex post in order to adopt proper strategy infuture2.0 Pandemic Measures in Your Country (500 words max)
A state of emergency, which started from 2 p.m. on 12 March 2020 due to the coronavirus
threat contained the following measures:
Measures at international level
Foreigners coming from Covid high-risk countries were prohibited from entering the Czech
Republic from 14 March 2020.
All foreigners were prohibited from entering the Czech Republic effective from 00:00 of 16
March 2020, (exemption-foreigners with temporary or permanent residence).
Citizens of the Czech Republic and foreigners with permanent/temporary residence in the
Czech Republic were prohibited from leaving the Czech Republic, (exemption: pendlers
employed within 100 km, etc.)
Citizens of the Czech Republic and foreigners with permanent/temporary residence returningfrom high risk territories were requested to report this fact and spend 14 days in quarantine.
Drivers of trucks, buses, trains, ships and respective crew and to whom exception fromcompulsory quarantine applies were recommended to behave with maximum caution on risk
territories, (Czech Ministry of Health, 2020).
Measures at borders
The border protection with Germany and Austria had been renewed as of 00:00 on 14 March
2020. The border with Slovakia was closed and Poland closed borders on Sunday 12 March.
Crossing the border with Austria and Germany allowed only at few selected border crossingsand at Prague-Ruzyně and Prague-Kbely, (Czech Ministry of Health, 2020)
Cultural events, sport events and others
Events attended by general public were prohibited as of 6:00 on 13 March 2020, which includes
theater, music, film, artistic performances, sports, cultural, religious events, dance, traditional
events, gatherings, exhibitions, festivals, funfairs, shows, tastings, markets, fairs, educational
events public/private.
Prohibition of services such as fitness studios, swimming facilities, solaria, saunas, and otherwellness services, music and social clubs, entertainment facilities, public libraries, and galleries
as of 6:00 on 13 March 2020. Swimming pools and tourist information centres were closed
effective from 6:00 on 14 March.
Outdoor and indoor sports facilities were restricted to a maximum of 30 persons at any timeeffective from 6:00 on 14 March 2020.
Retail sales and sale of services and outlets and sales at market places and market halls wereprohibited effective from 6:00 on 14 March 2020 through to 6:00 on 24 March 2020 withexception of selling: foodstuffs, IT staff, automotive fuel, heating fuel, hygienic goods, druggist

goods, medical products, small domestic animals, feeds and staff for animals, newspapers andmagazines, spectacles, contact lenses, tobacco products, laundry and dry-cleaning services,
sales via the internet and other remote means
Dining services (with the exception of non-public establishments- staff dining, dining for
healthcare and social services, penal institutions) were prohibited starting from 6:00 on 14
March 2020 till 6:00 24 March 2020. The exemption was sale outside of the dining
establishment, (take-out food windows).
Dining service located in shopping centres with a sales area in excess of 5000 sq m wereprohibited effective from 6:00 on 14 March 2020 till 6:00 on 24 March 2020.
The operation of casinos and gambling was prohibited effective from 6:00 on 14 March 2020,(MZCR 2020).
As of 16 March 2020, accommodation services were prohibited, (Government of the Czech
Republic 2020).
School attendance and education events
Attendance of students at primary, secondary and tertiary education at schools and education
facilities was prohibited including mass forms of instruction and exams organized byuniversities and schools starting of 13 March 2020. Clinical and practical training and practicewere allowed.
One-year foreign language education on daily basis and leisure-time courses were prohibited
including competitions and shows organized for children and students of schools and education
institutions effective of 13 March 2020, (Czech Ministry of Health, 2020).
International passenger carriage
All carriers providing international passenger carriage by road, rail or on cross-border inland
water transport with a capacity over 9 persons were prohibited effective from 00:00 on 14
March 2020. Commercial passenger air carriage was limited to usage of the Vaclav Havel
International public airport with exemption of Czech citizens and citizens withpermanent/temporary stay who are returning to the Czech Republic, for the transport of empty
buses, trains, vessels back to the Czech Republic or leaving the Czech Republic, (Czech
Ministry of Health, 2020).
Social services
Effective from 14 March 2020 labor obligation was imposed on students attending higher andtertiary institutions in social disciplines in order to ensure the provision of care in social
services facilities.
Social services providers were ordered to suspend operating day centres, but in necessary cases
ensure the provision of appropriate social services to clients, (Czech Ministry of Health, 2020).

Ban on free movement of people started to be effective from 16 March 2020 00:00, (Amcham2020). As of 17 March all the people had to comply with an obligation to wear a mask outside,(Government of the Czech Republic 2020).
The State of emergency was prolonged till 17 May 2020. The government started with gradualeasing of all respective measures with most restrictions being lifted after 17 May 2020, when
The State of Emergency ended, (Amcham 2020).
References:
American Chamber of Commerce, (2020): http://www.amcham.cz/news/summary-of-all-applicable-measures-inthe-czech-republic-during-the-state-of-emergency
Government of the Czech Republic, (2020), Measures adopted by the Czech Government against the coronavirus,
available at: https://www.vlada.cz/en/media-centrum/aktualne/measures-adopted-by-the-czech-governmentagainst-coronavirus-180545/
Czech Ministry of Health (2020), Summary of All Measures Applicable in the Czech Republic during the Stateof Emergency, available at: https://koronavirus.mzcr.cz/en/summary-of-all-measures-applicable-in-the-czechrepublic-during-the-state-of-emergency/

2.1 Measures taken by higher education institutions nationally (500 words max)
Effective from 11 March 2020 based on the law No. 111/1998 Sb., the following measures
were implemented:
The personal presence of students at higher education institutions and at universities wasprohibited, (in the form of lectures, seminars, consultations, laboratory classes) including
examinations. Instead distant tools of education started to take the place such as online
teaching. Employees were recommended to work from home, (VSCHT 2020).
Most of the international mobilities in cooperation were either cancelled or postponed effectivefrom 11 March 2020, (CZUNI 2020).
All public events organized by universities were cancelled or postponed effective from 11
March 2020, (VSCHT 2020).
Effective from 12 March 2020 dormitories continued to work under increased hygienic regimes
effective from 11 March 2020, however some universities advised or even issued direction toleave the student dormitory as soon as possible, in some cases with an exemption of foreign
students. If new foreign students arrived and their departure was not possible they had to stayin 14 days quarantine, (FME 2020).

Students returning from high risk Covid countries and those who were allowed to return, (thecase of foreign students depending on their status) were advised to contact immediately amedical doctor by phone and placed into mandatory 14-day quarantine starting from March 16
2020, (VSCHT 2020, CVUT 2020).
Effective from 12 March 2020 it was recommended to students or academic staff, who werecurrently abroad to return from their stays abroad to the Czech Republic. Present foreign andnewly arriving foreign students were advised to return home. (VUT 2020).
The personal presence of students was allowed starting 27 April 2020, but only for specificpurposes such as consultation/testing/practical projects/examination with maximum of 5
students at one time. Laboratory works, research and artistic work including completion of the
final theses with maximum of 5 students. Individual visits to libraries and study rooms toborrow/return relevant literature. Practical teaching and individual research activities wereallowed. (VSCHT 2020).
Effective from 11 May 2020 meeting for study purpose in group of no more than 15 students
allowed, however most of the universities used this option for laboratory teaching or practicalprojects. (VSCHT 2020). Otherwise, the education continued the form of distant online study
till the end of the semester.
Other measures were still valid such as presence of students only in necessary circumstances,
hygienical measures such as wearing masks and using disinfection, home office of employees.
References:
CVUT (2020): Covid 19 Situation/Information, available at: https://isc.cvut.cz/coronavirus
Czech Ministry of Health (2020), Extraordinary Measure, available at: https://www.mzcr.cz/wpcontent/uploads/wepub/18696/40547/Mimo%C5%99%C3%A1dn%C3%A9%20opat%C5%99en%C3%AD%20-%20uzav%C5%99en%C3%AD%20z%C3%A1kladn%C3%ADch,%20st%C5%99edn%C3%ADch%20a%20v
ysok%C3%BDch%20%C5%A1kol%20od%2011.%203.%202020.pdf
Czech universities (2020), Czech government declares state of emergency in response to coronavirus, available
at:https://www.czechuniversities.com/article/czech-government-declares-state-of-emergency-in-response-tocoronavirus-epidemic
FME (2020), available at: https://www.fme.vutbr.cz/en/fakulta/aktuality/67626
VSCHT (2020), Coronavirus archive, available at: https://www.vscht.cz/coronavirus/archive
VUT (2020), available at: https://www.favu.vut.cz/en/(no-title)-f26634/we-encourage-our-students-andemployees-to-return-from-abroad-d196834

3.0 Analysis Context (1000 words max)
No collaboration took place with other partners, however respondents in a survey contributed
significantly in qualitative part and thereby we should consider it as valuable input in our
analysis.
Qualitative analysis:
293 (11%) have other thoughts/experiences about their life in the pandemic.
Online teaching
University of Economics is praised by its students with respect to its approach to organizationof online teaching/learning and also organization of the exam term, where exams were on timewith a negligible delay. The beginning of the pandemics was affected by uncertainty also inacademic sector, where some students would appreciate more information about the situation.
Covid lockdown shows that University should pay more attention to specific social cases, (freemothers) or students with specific needs. Students have mostly ambivalent attitude to online
teaching and consider it rather as a complementary part of standard teaching. In general, theability of online teaching to adjust during the lockdown to needs of students is rather low, forinstance due to insufficient technology or inability to implement practical courses. Also, online
communication in academic sphere does not represent a substitute for personal communication,
which is preferred. Although online teaching should be considered as an opportunity to sparetime not mentioning recorded lectures, which is great to revise knowledge, students report that
it is more about self-study. Some of the students mention that Covid lockdown has produced
interesting online courses. Some of the students mention that requirements for passing exams
are the same like before Covid lockdown and disproportional with respect to limited ability of
online teaching to endow students with adequate knowledge. From psychological point ofview, limited interaction between teacher and students due to online teaching was one of thefrequently mentioned problems. Also, online courses are challenging with respect toconcentration and preparation. Academic employees consider virtual teaching/work more time
demanding and challenging in terms of use of advanced technologies, but at the same time lesshectic with clear benefits of home office. Still, the preparation of online teaching is highly time
demanding, and it constrains the ability to meet other working deadlines. Most of the academics
agree that their position at university has not been affected so far compared to other industries.
Social life, family life, activities
People mostly stayed with their family, less with their partners or siblings. On the one hand
respondents appreciated that they had more opportunity to spend time with their family andpartners and improve relationships with them. In contrast many of them indicated that Covid

is demanding in terms of family life, (for instance demanding care for children combined withwork and household functioning), which affected and sometimes even distorted their family or
work relationships. Also, participants stated that they have more time to invest into activities,
for which there was not time before such as reconstruction of the flat or house or to finish longterm projects, (diploma thesis, studies). Also, the survey reveals that despite reduction in manysocial and cultural activities, (cinema, theater, exhibitions, restaurants), people utilized this inorder to pursue new activities which they have never done before or they would never do innormal times, (painting, taking exercises, learning new language, playing musical instrument).
Despite limited movement around home and limited sport activities, people tried to make mostout of it by replacing it by other activities and keep positive attitude. Also, increased trend of
online shopping, (especially food), was the case due to lockdown.
Change in the Society as a whole
Respondents mentioned that Covid lockdown was an opportunity for them to slow down, think
about themselves and reassess their life priorities, think about what is important and what isnot. To recognize the real value added in their lives, the sense of living. Covid also temporarily
contributed to calmer environment with less people everywhere. Some respondents mentionedthat lockdown might strengthen society´s resistance against future negative events such as
coronavirus. It seems that at that time positive vibrations prevailed over negative and gave an
opportunity to people to stop for a while. Also, it depends on psychological profile of thepeople, where there are two types of people- desperate and hysterical and in contrast people
who find another activity during Covid. Additionally, introvert people see lockdown in morepositive way than extroverts, who rely heavily on social contacts. However, it was alsomentioned that coming back to normal life will be more difficult than to accept lockdown
regulations, (coming back to school, maternity school).
Czech society starting with lockdown in March 2020 was well disciplined, respected adopted
measures. Majority saw it as some temporary state, in which case the lockdown is a necessity
to stick to current measures in order to come back to normal life. There was solidarity amongpeople. Retired people unable to take care of themselves because of the Covid threat
appreciated help of volunteers. Covid also made people to realize that some activities areunimportant for a life. Moreover, the situation increased hygienical habits of people. Lockdown
also affected positively environment at one side with more people staying on home office andwith fewer flights, but on the other hand more people prefer to travel by car than by public
transport, which leads to significant increase in traffic.

Most of the respondents mention that there was an induced uncertainty, anxiety and stress inthe context of government measures, which were implemented with impact in many areas oflife, (travelling, international cooperation, parents work and care for children). This was also
due to unexpected or even prolonged lockdown and confusion regarding an implementation of
government measures- what came into effect and what has changed with excessive information
present.
People also noted in the survey that restrictive measures were too strict, raising complaints
about closed borders, wearing masks everywhere and other measures. Psychological impact ofrestrictions was also observed in increased consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, which
replaced activities such as sports, culture or restaurant visit. Some people emphasize
psychological stress, anxiety and even suicide thoughts. Women consider themselves to be
more affected than men (household works, etc.), with less time for studying/work.
Some respondents consider Covid lockdown as some sort of unique opportunity to change theway the society works, something new to start, change the world, (for instance taking care ofenvironment more, reduce excessive consumption of the society), which become sooner or later
unsustainable.
Impact of the media
Majority of respondents claim that the impact of the media is enormous, its approach isaggressive with powerful manipulation. Negative framing is often the case by mentioning
number of deaths due to Covid. Respondents mentioned that media by its attitude provoke
hysteria, contribute to social herding and prevailing depression, rising anxiety and even panic
among society. For instance, it impacted behavior of some people, who started to makeexcessive stocks of dry food and items for survival, which resulted in temporary lack of somegoods in supermarkets.
Additionally, media have low credibility, don´t provide reliable information, which might
contribute to attitudes similar to statements that Covid is fake, it represents just violation ofhuman rights, leads to restriction of freedom and excessive panic in society.

Reference:
The Lock Down Survey done at University of Economics, Prague in cooperation with London School of
Economics and healthbit.com, (2020).

4.0 Policy Context (max 1000 words)
Conclusion reflecting on policy measures
The adoption of the policy measures by the Czech government was quite a success in terms ofefficient deal with reduction of Covid-19 rates. At that time, we experienced one of the lowest
rates of Covid-19 in the world. However, the process of an implementation of adopted
measures is subject to criticism not mentioning inadequacy of some measures, which wereaccording to some lawyers in conflict with the law, (closure of borders). In a 5-stage plan from
April till June, government eased the restrictions slowly. The Czech Republic was considered
as a success story for handling the first wave of COVID-19.
Czech Republic was the first country in Europe, which introduced obligation to wear protective
face mask outside starting from 17th of March 2020. This regulatory measure was introduced
despite the fact that Czech Republic suffered from lack of face masks. As a result, Czech people
sew masks at home. Additionally, government did rarely any campaign to promote theimportance of wearing masks. Instead promotional video was done by private movie makers,
Petr Ludwig and Czech influencers, which aimed to explain people that mask was the key
element to fight the spread of Covid 19. It became famous by the statement: “My Mask protects
you and your mask protects me” (Pirodsky, 2020). This contributed to the fact that within 3days there was enough masks due to mobilization of volunteers.
Also, the Czech Republic had declared a state of emergency on 12th of March 2020 and was
the first EU country, which closed borders and imposed restrictions nationwide, (Czech
Ministry of Health, 2020).
In the mid of May the government lifted the state of emergency and introduced a smart
quarantine system, which was aimed to track individual cases and also traffic light system toidentify outbreaks. This system was similar to South Korea, Japan and Singapore system. A
smart quarantine with help of digital technologies appeared to be successful instrument how tosearch for possible contacts of infected individuals and was accompanied by mobile application“Erouska”, which monitored/monitors the occurence of Covid infected people within peoples´close proximity, (Czech Ministry of Health, 2020b).
Government also published online daily statistics regarding number of infected people, numberof tests, deaths, recoveries, supplemented by basic information about Covid-19 development,
https://onemocneni-aktualne.mzcr.cz/Covid-19
Government regulatory measures were introduced in early and timely way, such as limited freemovement, an obligation to wear mask and others. Unfortunately, communication in general
was chaotic and non-systematic and announcements were rather confusing, especially in earlystage, (Stulik 2020). For instance, communication with respect to universities suffered fromsevere lags with some last-minute announcements, which can be partially attributed to
unexpected development of COVID-19, where many universities hoped that it will be justtemporary state and normal teaching will be renewed after few weeks.
Government also introduced economic and social packages to alleviate the economic andfinancial consequences of individuals and businesses affected by COVID-19 crisis.
Government also introduced some tax reliefs for businesses affected by COVID-19 and had
postponed EET (electronic evidence of revenues) till December 2022, (Czech Government
portal, 2020b).
The government mobilized medical staff and hospitals including the activation of medical
students during the peak of COVID-19. However, the distribution of protective medical
equipment for medical staff and workers at the front line was significantly delayed. Also, there
was absence of centralized purchases of equipment and materials, (Stulik, 2020).
The government was criticized for precipitous launch of massive purchases from China while
ignoring foreign and domestic aid of assistance from Czech companies, (Stulik, 2020).
Government produced excessive amount of information, which was impossible to absorb by
public, frequently chaotic, which was caused also by the absence of single communication
platform, which would inform the public about the adoption and change in regulatory measures.
At early stages government´s crisis communication was at poor level, with inconsistent attitude
of top government officials, (Stulik 2020). Mostly people relied on media, which was notreliable information source and has led to many confusions, stress and anxiety as emphasizedby participants in the survey.
Nevertheless, people respected adopted measures during 2020 lockdown and majority saw it
as some temporary state, in which case the lockdown is a necessity to stick to current measuresin order to come back to normal life.
Policy Recommendations:
Government should become more transparent, improve its communication with public, provide
evidence-based rational for regulation accompanied by thorough explanation to the public toavoid confusion what holds and what does not. In order to enhance its transparency and induce
motivations of people to obey regulatory measures in the long term, the government should
start campaign, which would promote some regulatory measures in popular way.

Also, excessive information should be reduced to absolutely necessary minimum
understandable to majority of population, which might be done via some special channel orplatform or campaign.
The government shall also deal with crisis response legislation, which was just temporary andwas subject to criticism due to its inconsistency with higher-level law, (such as constitutionalone).
The government should enhance quality of its crisis management in terms of taking
responsibility, move to more flexible decision-making, adopting responses in timely manner,setting up channels of communication and build strategic plan for the next time in order toenhance its accountability, transparency and honesty in line with basic principles of strategic
decision-making.
Additionally, the government should also evaluate the efficiency of regulatory measures “expost” in order to adopt proper amendments in future and get an inspiration in case of the future
wave of COVID-19.

References:
Czech Ministry of Health (2020), Summary of All Measures Applicable in the Czech Republic during the Stateof Emergency, available at: https://koronavirus.mzcr.cz/en/summary-of-all-measures-applicable-in-the-czechrepublic-during-the-state-of-emergency/
Czech Ministry of Health (2020b): Government approves incorporating the Smart Quarantine under the Ministryof Health, new exemptions from wearing masks, and the cancellation of shopping hours for seniors, Press
Releases, available at: https://koronavirus.mzcr.cz/en/government-approves-incorporating-the-smart-quarantineunder-the-ministry-of-health-new-exemptions-from-wearing-masks-and-the-cancellation-of-shopping-hours-forseniors/
Czech Ministry of Health, (2020c), COVID-19, Přehled aktuální situace ČR, https://onemocneniaktualne.mzcr.cz/Covid-19
Czech Government portal (2020b): Podpora a úlevy pro podnikatele a zaměstnance, available at:https://www.vlada.cz/cz/epidemie-koronaviru/dulezite-informace/podpora-a-ulevy-pro-podnikatele-azamestnance-180601/
Doane (2018), What To Do When Crisis Strikes: Five Tips On Crisis Management, Forbes, available at:https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/10/17/what-to-do-when-crisis-strikes-five-tips-on-crisismanagement/?sh=3c5455b57709
Pirodsky, J., (2020), The Czech Republic is a model of anti-coronavirus measures, writes the Washington Post,
https://news.expats.cz/coronavirus-in-the-czech-republic/the-czech-republic-is-a-model-of-anti-coronavirusmeasures-writes-the-washington-post/
Stulík, D. (2020), Lessons learned and the best practices from the Czech Republic: Covid-19, European values
think-thank,availableat:https://www.ngobg.info/bg/documents/5/2606lessons_learned_and_best_practices_czech_republic_Covid_19.p
df

5.0 Public OutreachIn progress. Presentation of research outcomes is planned once Covid will allow for someconference on stage, which would be better in order to get some interesting feedback fromscientific community or public. But in case of Covid continuation even an online conference is
probably good idea.

6.0 Other outputs (optional)