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THE WILDCAT DIGITAL HISTORY PROJECT

PRAGUE AND DALLAS IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Grade 10
A comparative essay about America (Dallas, Texas) and Czech Republic (Prague) and how they dealt with the COVID-19 situation, with step by step descriptions of what the cities did and which one was more successful.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Services
The COVID-19 pandemic has invented the world very quickly. It spretted from Asia to Europe and then to all the other parts of the world. We all thought this pandemic was going to be over in a few months but the truth was far away from that. Many people did not even try to change their routines to prevent the virus from spreading. And the same went for the politics, they had to have a “plan B” but most of the people, as I already mentioned, did not think that would be necessary.
Then what did the politics do to get through this pandemic? That is what I want to talk about in my project, more specifically about two cities that I picked to talk about, Prague and Dallas, I want to get a closer look on how they dealt with this pandemic and which one dealt with it better.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text

Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Image
Starting with Dallas, since Dallas is in America it was struck down, by the pandemic, a few weeks later than Prague was. Texas was declared as a state of disaster on March 13th, social distancing started to occur, however you could still see a good amount of people looking like nothing is happening for a few weeks. The thought that the coronavirus was just now in Italy made them think they are for some reason untouchable since we are in america. But they were wrong, It took less than a month and the USA overtook Italy and China in most confirmed cases of COVID-19. Only after that we could actually sense fear and people started staying home because it opened their eyes. So when the governor declared the state of disaster, schools were all officially closed but no one knew if people would be able to go back any time soon. On March 17th the governor requested emergency designation for small businesses. So if you wanted to do the simplest, regular and automatic things you did in your daily routine, like go get a starbucks with your friends, you couldn't.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text

Now just a day later we receive other news from the governor, “issuing the proclamation allowing for postponement of local elections set for May 2nd” -––> "Right now, the state's focus is responding to COVID-19 — including social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. By delaying this election, our local election officials can assist in that effort." That is what we mentioned in the office of the texas governor / Greg Abbott.
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Now that the Texas state, and Dallas, are supposed to be social distancing the issue began to be the people still thinking it is safe to travel, On March 26th the issue was made, 14 days of quarantine from the parts of USA that were affected the most from this pandemic, which later was mad for the every state and not only plane travel but road travel too. People in schools and other businesses were thinking they might get back after April 6th but social distancing was pushed to May. On April 7th a temporary closure of state parks and historic sites. During the time in April was the most social distancing between the four months, since the pandemic has been spreading from Asia, If people got the chance to go out just to get some groceries, they wore masks, some gloves and still kept distancing while outside. People also started to exercise outside in their neighbourhoods more, still wearing at least masks.
In May that is where the situation got a little bit on the loose. May 5th was when the governor said that small businesses can start to reopen with some conditions. To give an example, businesses like, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A Etc. were meant to just deliver their food or people needed to use the drive through. That also meant that some more people could go back to their work so you can once again see roads with bigger numbers of cars and more people in general.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text

Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Image
Moving on with Prague, the virus traveled to Prague after it was in Italy, most people that had the case of COVID-19 were the ones that traveled to Italy during spring break on February 19th - March 3th. (In prague) Other parts of the chzech republic had spring break a little differently. Italy was always one of the most favorite destinations to travel to during spring break, people could sky, that is why so many people that traveled there were the ones spreading the virus. The government and the prime minister, Babiš, started issuing measures about the virus. At first He stopped the travel from Italy, China and other parts of Europe and Asia that had a big amount of cases with coronavirus. March 8th the ministry of health issued that all of the people with the virus had to stay in quarantine with the people who are going to come back to czech republic.
Then finally on March 12, 2020, the Czech government declared a state of emergency due to coronavirus throughout the Czech Republic. The state of emergency came into force on 14:00 on March 12th. That is when people officially stopped going outside, work and school. Having some people as my source I can be sure to say that many people actually stayed home, started social distancing, and our city was never so empty.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text

PRIME MINISTER, ANDREJ BABIŠ
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Image
However on March 13th the government said that all arrivals from high-risk countries had to quarantine. Czech citizens and tourists that started living in the Czech Republic (just like me in Texas) may not leave the country from Sunday to Monday, March 16, with a few exceptions. At the same time, a similar ban began to apply for those tourists who would like to come to the Czech Republic and do not have a permanent or long-term temporary residence there. Afterwards the state had put the whole country into a quarantine step by step just like the governor of Texas did. When the government said that whoever will go outside and will not have a mask on will be charged Czech republic had to face a time where most people did not even have the right supplies, like masks and hand sanitizers, that was when the citizens of Czech republic started to take the situation in their own hands. They started to create their own maska and give them to the people who did not have any. Doing so until the republic finally received a big amount of masks. Later the Czech republic started to be a good influence from the other countries and people were told that they are handling this situation very representatively. Now on May 17th quarantine has officially ended for Czech republic and people are going back to schools and their “normal lives”. The government however is fearing that they do not have that much power anymore and is scared that people will not be doing what needs to be done to prevent still spreading the virus. The biggest question mark is how will Prague handle public transport.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Image

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Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Image
Both of the cities, the state and country, handled the situation quite remarkably. None of the two have been the parts of their continents that had handled the situation badly, for America it was NewYork and for Europe Italy, I have heard for both of them very good reviews about how they are managing this. However they have different reasons. Texas had its reasoning in the government, the governor gave good orders on what to do, but you can not say that the Czech people were as happy for their own government like the Texans. For Czech republic it was the citizens that did a better job than the prime minister. And in Texas some people did not do such a precise job like the people in Czech.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text
I thought while making this project I will be more specific and I would be able to talk about the cities more than the country and state. But the orders were not made just for the cities but for the whole country and the state.
This Pandemic is far from actually ending and people still need to be carefull, so it is sad that I will not be able to talk about the final ending here. But so far I am impressed with both cities, and I hope that they will remain doing this good job until we will be able to go back to at least a ůlittle bit of normal life.
Prague and Dallas in COVID-19 pandemic: Text

THANK YOU FOR READING MY PROJECT
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