According to Chief Hygienist Pavla Svrčinová, inspections of restaurant guests’ gardens are constantly taking place. At a press conference on Friday, she stated it is mandatory to be vaccinated or tested, which has been fulfilled by 90% of the visitors. However, she indicates that the inspection shall be intensified.
Although strict measures have been put into place, the police officials see it differently. People have developed several tricks that let them in the restaurant gardens regardless of having tested negative or not.
The police point to one really “clever” trick in particular. Guests simply refuse to talk to the health inspectors. Visitors can always say say that they do not want to testify, citing a section in the law that says that “anyone who would cause prosecution or a legal offense to himself or a loved one can refuse to testify”. Health officers’ hands are tied in such circumstances. So far no fines have been issued.
“We have been coming up with the idea that we will basically reprimand people who do not have a negative test certificate. But it was all completely useless, people either showed us a photo of some test they said they had done at home but we had no way of verifying the claim or, as in several cases, they refused to debate with us. At the same time, there were also young people sitting at one table who had written affidavits in their hands that they were negative. It was comedy,” one of the police officers who was present at the checks but did not want to be named told MF iDNES.
Lawyers recommend citizens exercising their rights as well. “No one is obligated to testify if they could cause themselves or a loved one to face criminal or administrative prosecution. Thus, in the case of inspections in gardens, remember the sentence: I exercise my right under sections 53 and 55 of the Administrative Code and refuse to give any explanation, testimony or present any evidence on the basis of it,” said lawyer Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová, who is the recipient of the 2019 Lawyer of the Year award.
Although the lawyer admits that in such a case, the sanitary stations can initiate administrative proceedings against the guest, but his will almost certainly end on the basis of a lack of evidence. Even the restaurateurs themselves speak of the absurdity of submitting test certificates. People are constantly editing and photographing one test certificate after another, or falsifying them in various ways.