UPDATE 2-Czech PM taps fourth health minister amid deadliest COVID wave Reuters 2 hrs ago
(Adds official appointment, details on minister, Blatny comment)
By Robert Muller and Jason Hovet
PRAGUE, April 7 (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis installed on Wednesday his fourth health minister since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit the country hard, amid growing pressure to seek vaccines from Russia and possibly also China.
Petr Arenberger, a Prague hospital director, replaces Jan Blatny, who had taken the job in October just as COVID-19 infections were spiking.
Three peaks of the pandemic since have claimed more than 27,000 lives and put the country of 10.7 million at the top of global rankings in deaths per capita, according to the Our World in Data website.
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC Czech Prime Minster Andrej Babis fired his health minister on Wednesday, the third health minister who has been ousted during the pandemic in one of Europe s hardest-hit countries. Jan Blatny was replaced by Petr Arenberger, the director of Prague s University Hospital Vinohrady, who was sworn in by President Milos Zeman. The move opens the way for a possible use of Russian and Chinese vaccines, which have not been approved by the European Union s drug regulator. Babis repeatedly criticized Blatny over his handling of the pandemic, including imposing strict conditions for the use of experimental drugs to treat COVID-19 patients.
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PRAGUE (Reuters) -Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Wednesday installed his fourth health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic as a lagging vaccination campaign heightened pressure to use Russia’s Sputnik dose.
FILE PHOTO: Czech Republic s Prime Minister Andrej Babis attends a news conference in Vienna, Austria March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Babis has gone back-and-forth on potentially buying the Sputnik V vaccine prior to European Union approval, an issue other EU nations are pondering due to shortages of registered vaccines.
President Milos Zeman, who backs closer Russian and Chinese ties, had sought the sacking of Jan Blatny for his opposition to Sputnik.
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1of24German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 31, 2021. (Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP)Hannibal Hanschke/APShow MoreShow Less
2of24Elle Taylor, 24, an unpaid carer from Ammanford, receives the first injection of the Moderna vaccine to be administered in Britain by nurse Laura French, at the West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen, Wales, Wednesday April 7, 2021. The Moderna vaccine is the third vaccine to be approved for use in the UK, which is to be given to patients in Wales from Wednesday, and the UK has so far ordered 17 million doses of the Moderna jab. (Jacob King/Pool via AP)Jacob King/APShow MoreShow Less