A joke is doing the rounds in the Czech Republic that the world’s highest Covid mortality rate can, in actual fact, be found in the Czech Ministry of Health. Yesterday, the Czech health minister Jan Blatný was dismissed, the nation’s third ‘Covid Health Minister’ since the pandemic began. Both his predecessors were sacked by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš in the autumn of 2020.
Rumours of Blatný’s departure had been in the wind for weeks. But his fall from favour seems to have little to do with the Czech Republic’s inability to contain the spread of Covid-19, and far more to do with the ongoing controversy over whether the country will join regional allies Slovakia and Hungary in buying the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
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Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU) worker Sergio Ricardo, left, and two neighbors, carry an elderly COVID-19 patient to an ambulance in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Credit: The Associated Press
MONTREAL - The Quebec government is imposing an earlier curfew for Montreal and the suburb of Laval as it tightens COVID-19 restrictions for the second time in three days because of a third surge of coronavirus infections fueled by more contagious virus variants.
Premier Francois Legault announced that beginning Sunday, people in Montreal and Laval will have to remain at home from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. or face fines of more than $1,000 Canadian (US$800).
By The Associated Press
MONTREAL â- The Quebec government is imposing an earlier curfew for Montreal and the suburb of Laval as it tightens COVID-19 restrictions for the second time in three days because of a third surge of coronavirus infections fueled by more contagious virus variants.
Premier Francois Legault announced that beginning Sunday, people in Montreal and Laval will have to remain at home from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. or face fines of more than $1,000 Canadian (US$800).
Last week, Legault placed Quebec City, Levis and Gatineau under the earlier curfew, advancing it from the previous 9:30 p.m. start. The government also closed schools and non-essential businesses in those three cities for at least 10 days, and Legault announced Thursday that those measures would be prolonged until April 18.
By The Associated Press
PHILIPPINE SEA â The U.S. 7th Fleet that operates throughout the Indo-Pacific says 96% of its personnel have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The fleet said in a news release that more than 14,000 of its service members had received their full doses of the vaccine, which it began administering on January 5.
âWe are in a pandemic and our principle weapon for ending this and saving lives is the vaccine,â vaccine coordinator Capt. Joseph F. Penta was quoted as saying. âWe owe it to ourselves, our family and country to make every effort to stop the pandemic.â
Receiving the vaccination was voluntary and medical personnel were on hand to answer any questions about the process, the release said.
Slovakia Seeks Hungary s Help To Inspect Sputnik Vaccine
April 09, 2021 13:18 GMT
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Slovakia has reportedly turned to neighbor Hungary for assistance examining shipments of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine as a dispute widens over the reliability and consistency of 200,000 doses supplied to Bratislava last month.
Slovak Finance Minister Igor Matovic announced the Hungarian regulator s role after a meeting with Hungary s foreign minister in Budapest on April 9.
Hungary is the only EU member state that has already begun mass vaccinations with Sputnik V against COVID-19 as the European drug regulator inspects its efficacy and safety, as well as ethical concerns about the Russian clinical testing that went into it.