A necessary Christmas

Parliament extended the state of emergency, which means the Babiš government will need to issue new orders today for dictating behavior between tomorrow and Sun., when the screws will likely be tightened yet again. Health Min. Jan Blatný decided against banning gatherings of more than two people as of this Fri., so that those who were model citizens and got tested may meet with their family over Christmas. Alas, he apparently forgot about another ban, which might go down as the most restrictive in the 1,000-year history of the Czechs. The current order requires people to limit contact with all others to the minimum necessary. Devout Christians could argue in a court of law that human contact on Christmas is a spiritual necessity, but what about the atheists, agnostics and other faiths? Perhaps the cabinet could show them the Yuletide spirit by declaring today that Christmas is a "necessary activity." Only in covid times is a government order needed for stating the obvious.