Locking down the lockdown

Our main takeaway from last night's national televised address by Health Min. Roman Prymula is that he will soon order all non-food stores and services to close. We base this on the reality that when Prymula or PM Andrej Babiš say, "We don't want to...," it almost always means that they will soon do just that. Just substitute, "We are about to...." So when Prymula said last night that it won't be necessary to close down stores and services if shoppers avoid close contact with other customers and maintain proper hand hygiene, the forewarning seemed obvious enough to those willing to listen. Prymula and Babiš have understood that Czechs are ready to accept anything if they are slow-boiled like frogs instead of thrown straight into a boiling cauldron. Prymula declared last night that he "doesn't want a lockdown" and that his primary goal is to avoid this state of affairs. Just substitute, "We are about to lock you down." Which puts Czechs in a very strange situation indeed. Since they are already under a certain form of lockdown as of today, Prymula will soon be locking down the lockdown. But he won't want to.