Mourners make Prague's Old Town Square into sombre memorial for
coronavirus victims
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[March 26, 2021]
By Jiri Skacel
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Prague residents laying
flowers, scribbling names or mourning quietly have turned the Czech
capital's medieval Old Town Square into an improvised memorial to the
thousands of lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year.
A civic group called "Million Moments for Democracy" sprayed 25,000
white crosses overnight on Monday on the cobble-stoned square,
surrounded by gothic and baroque churches and Prague's famed
Astronomical Clock, to commemorate victims of the pandemic in the past
year -- and blame the government for missteps.
The plan was to wash the crosses off that day, but Prague's city hall
said it would let them stay until rain washes them off.
Then people spontaneously started chalking names, dates of deaths and
notes to individual crosses, turning the original act into personal
commemorations.
Anna Vojtechova brought a flower and a small bottle of the Czech herbal
liqueur Becherovka for her brother, who died aged 75 on March 1, the
same day he registered for vaccination.
"He was supposed to be vaccinated and did not live to see it. He was
healthy, not obese, no illness. It chewed him up. People must be hugely
careful," she said while fighting tears.
Another mourner, Petr Popov, came to remember a friend from Prague's
Bulgarian community. "I want to write his name down with chalk to pay
respects, he said.
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A man mourns for his deceased loved one at the Old Town Square where
thousands of crosses have been painted on a pavement to commemorate
the first anniversary since the death of the first Czech coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) patient in Prague, Czech Republic, March 25,
2021. Picture taken March 25, 2021. REUTERS/David W Cerny
Others, who have not been personally hit, also visit.
Monika Mudranincova said she wanted to pay her respects.
"We feel so sorry and it would be amazing if we saw a light at the
end of the tunnel, but it seems there is none yet," she said.
During the first wave of the pandemic, a year ago, the Czech
government quickly shut borders, schools and retail outlets, leading
the country through with minimum losses. But it was also quick to
relax restrictions after the first wave and slow to build up testing
and tracing capacities over the summer.
The government reacted slowly to a new surge in infections in the
autumn. Another relaxation before Christmas and the spread of the
more infectious British variant of the virus packed hospitals again
in January and then March.
Now the central European country of 10.7 million has become one of
the world's worst-hit in the pandemic, reporting over 1.5 million
coronavirus infections and 25,639 deaths, and thousands more excess
deaths above normal rates.
The death toll is the highest per capita in the world apart from San
Marino, according to Our World in Data website.
(Reporting by Jiri Skacel, writing by Jan Lopatka, editing by Larry
King)
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