The Latest: Czech govt extends emergency, defies Parliament

The Czech government has re-declared its state of emergency for next two weeks to be able to effectively tackle the coronavirus pandemic in one of the hardest hit European countries.

The decision has been approved in defiance of the lower house of Parliament, which has refused the government's request to extend the tool that gives the Cabinet extra powers necessary to impose and keep in place strict nationwide restrictive measures and limit people's rights.

Some lawyers and politicians say the government's move violates the country's Constitution.

The current state of emergency would expire on Sunday. The government could use other legal options to reimpose some measures but not all of them.

That means bars, restaurants and cafes would reopen Monday as well as services could return to business while the nighttime curfew and a ban for more than two people to gather in public would be cancelled.

The government warned that would worsen the pandemic and might cause the health system to collapse.

Sunday's move comes at the request of the heads of governments of all 14 Czech regions who say have not enough powers to fight the pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)