For the third time since the start of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Czech Republic is getting a new health minister, the current minister announced on Wednesday.
Jan Blatny announced that he had been recalled and that it had been a political decision by Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
The decision is likely based on the fact that Blatny and Babis did not see eye to eye on the Russian made Sputnik V vaccine.
Blatny had wanted to wait for European Union (EU) authorities to decide on it.
Blatny will be replaced by Petr Arenberger, who is in charge of the University Hospital Prague-Vinohrady.
Arenberger had said in a newspaper interview that he was open to using the vaccine.
According to the opposition, Blatny is simply being used as a scapegoat for mistakes made by Babis’ government.
The Czech Republic is due to hold parliamentary elections in six months.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been more than 1.5 million confirmed Coronavirus cases and more than 27,325 virus-related deaths in the country.
Currently, almost 300 people per 100,000 residents were infected within seven days.
