This was immediately shot down by the head of the national public health authority, who admonished her Prague colleagues at a press conference. Schools had no authority to send home unvaccinated children as a precaution, she said.

Instead, all cases should be judged individually, based on how long the infected child had spent in the classroom, and so on.

Epidemiologists, including one who led the government’s measures against Covid, shook their heads in disbelief. Recently amended health ministry guidelines called for exactly the approach recommended by the Prague authority, they said.

But the confusion over the official guidance obscured a curious conundrum; what unvaccinated children?

Vaccination for whooping cough, known in Czech as “black cough”, is mandatory in the country.

It is meant to be administered, alongside inoculation for diphtheria, tetanus, polio and others, from the very first weeks of life.

Yet according to official figures, immunisation for whooping cough is estimated at 97% of the infant population, suggesting there are thousands of unvaccinated babies in the Czech Republic.

Health Minister Vlastimil Válek told Czech Television the current rise in cases is down to a combination of two things: a resurgence in respiratory diseases as society abandons strict Covid measures; and incomplete immunisation in children.

The whooping cough vaccine is applied in five stages, the first three in the first 12 months of life. Almost all children receive these initial doses.

However, only 90% end up receiving the final two, administered around the ages of six and ten.

This, said Mr Válek, would explain why the greatest rise is among Czech teenagers.

Parents have been urged to check their children’s vaccination history. Adults are encouraged to go for booster shots.

In years gone by, dozens if not hundreds of babies and young children died in what was then Czechoslovakia from whooping cough each year, until the introduction of mandatory vaccination in 1958.

Experts say the modern population is still well protected by mass, state-administered compulsory vaccination.

The resurgence in cases, however, still carries dangers.

Those infected teenagers may suffer nothing more serious than a persistent cough. But they can still pass on what can be a fatal disease to their younger siblings – whose immunity is still forming – or indeed their grandparents, whose immunity may have faded.

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