Each of us should be responsible: A reminder from the UP Rector, with wishes for a beautiful summer

Dear colleagues and students,

The end of the summer semester is nearing, one which was again drastically influenced by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. I would like to thank all of you for how you coped with this unusual situation and how thanks to your service, enthusiasm, and conscientiousness, we managed to get through another non-traditional semester – all the way to its successful end. I believe that next semester we will again greet each other at the university face to face; however to do so, each of us must contribute their own dose of responsibility.

The holidays are before us, and many of us will be travelling at home and abroad. I hope that you will soak up a much-deserved rest after the difficult year of Covid. At the same time, as a doctor and rector, I have one important request: let’s please continue to be responsible, and not succumb to a general happy feeling that we have the pandemic safely behind us.

The number of infected people has been slowly rising in recent days and the devious delta mutation leads us to believe that Covid-19 is something that we will encounter for some time to come. And it is already clear that how the university will fare in the autumn must depend upon how we approach the situation now: in the summer. It is entirely up to us.

This is why for these months and the months to come, we have decided to launch the campaign Responsible Palacký. And I would be enormously happy if everyone of us became “responsible Palackýs”. We can distil the main message into five points:

1. For anyone who can, please get vaccinated. It’s the only way to strengthen our collective immunity.
2. If it is not possible to get fully vaccinated during the summer, remember that it is necessary after returning from our holidays and before returning to work to get tested for Covid-19, and to follow all the rules and recommendations of our own Ministry of Health and those abroad.
3. Let’s wear face masks wherever it is necessary, both at the university (aside from one’s own office) and away from the university.
4. Let us not underestimate any symptoms of respiratory trouble.
5. Let’s not forget that one of the most effective and simplest tactics in the fight against Covid-19 is to maintain the sensible measures of:
   • hand sanitising;
   • face masks;
   • distance (at least 2 metres);
   • common sense;
   • mutual respect.

Let’s all contribute, in order not to have to repeat last year’s scenario, and do all that we can so that we can return to university life in September: the way it used to be, and which we have missed so much. Let’s try to sensibly maintain the anti-epidemic measures and to communicate their importance to others. Let’s motivate others to be as responsible as we are. And as to whether we begin the winter semester in person or online, it really all depends on whether we are able to keep our summer merrymaking within sensible limits.

Many thanks for your cooperation, and that together, we will further the responsible reputation of the Palacký University Olomouc community.

Respectfully,

Martin Procházka