Czech Republic holds 'coronavirus farewell party' with no social distancing; See pics

With 11, 954 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, the Czech Republic on July 1 celebrated the “coronavirus farewell” party. Thousands at Prague's 14-century historic landmark Charles Bridge were seen dining on a 500 meter-long (1640ft) table with gourmet and drinks without social distancing. The celebration commenced hours before the mandatory face mask protocol was nullified across the country by the Czech government except in Prague. 

With over 10 million population, the European Union nation had managed to keep the coronavirus outbreak figures drastically low, less than 12,000, while the fatalities were put at 349. As many as 7,771 people recovered from the disease. The organizer of the party and owner of a popular tourist café in town, Ondrej Kobza, was quoted as saying that the people had assembled in huge numbers to bid a “symbolic” farewell to the COVID-19 health crisis. In a local report, Kobza stressed that the Czech people wanted to want to celebrate the end of the coronavirus by not wearing the masks and meeting people without precaution to show that they were not afraid anymore, they were neither afraid to share food or eat together. They could meet and greet without fear, he added. 

As per media reports, people of Czech had brought the food, snacks, and drinks from their homes, the table flashed bottles of wine, rose vases, cakes, crepes, fruits and canapes among many items people shared with each other as they feasted on. The tickets to the celebration were put up on the website Go Out for the Czech Republic and sold out within 40 seconds as a huge crowd gathered to the music, food, noise of crockery to socialize and mark an “end to the era of a pandemic”, according to the organizers.   

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Message to the world to 'live again'

Mayor Petr Hejma was quoted saying that the Czech Republic intended to send a strong message to the world to live again and break the chains of fear. Further, he invited the travellers from all across the world to visit and experience unique events in the country. The party comes amid WHO’s recent warnings that the pandemic "is not even close to being over" and that it is "actually speeding up" in many countries. 

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(All Images Courtesy: Twitter/ @Visegrad24/@PithyAssertion)