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A 2021 study of more than 800 European cities by Spain’s Barcelona Institute for Global Health, or ISGlobal, puts the regional capital of Ostrava and the nearby towns of ������������á and Havířov among the top 10 most polluted European cities.

State hard coal miner OKD last week closed its mines in the Karvina area in the country’s east, along the Polish border, after a jump in cases among miners and their close contacts.

The region of Karvina, where OKD’s operations are based, has had 247 cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days compared to a rate of around 10 overall in the country.

Almost half of the country’s new recorded cases, 122 out of 260, were identified in the ������������á region in the east of the country, where a hotspot had appeared among miners, the health minister Adam Vojtech said.

While restrictions in most of the country have been lifted in recent weeks, Karvina will see a tightening now, including lowering the number of people allowed at gatherings to 100, Vojtech said.