3rd health minister fired in virus-hit Czech Republic

<p>PRAGUE &mdash; 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.</p>
<p>Jan Blatny was expected to be replaced by Petr Arenberger, the director of Prague’s University Hospital Vinohrady, who will be sworn in later Wednesday. </p>
<p>Babis has repeatedly criticized Blatny over his handling of the pandemic, including imposing strict conditions for the use of experimental drugs to treat COVID-19 patients. </p>
<p>Blatny was also under fire from pro-Russian President Milos Zeman, an ally of Babis, who asked the prime minister last month to replace Blatny over his refusal to allow the use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine because it has not been approved by the European Union’s drug regulator.</p>
<p>Blatny took office on Oct 29 to replace epidemiologist Roman Prymula, who was dismissed after he was photographed visiting a restaurant that should have been closed as part of the country’s restrictive measures to slow down the pandemic. </p>
<p>Blatny, a specialist in pediatric hematology, was deputy director of the University Hospital in the second largest Czech city of Brno before he became health minister.</p>
<p>Prymula had replaced his predecessor, Adam Vojtech, in the post on Sept. 21, to enable a different approach to the pandemic amid surging infections.</p>
<p>The latest firing comes as coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have been on a decline, with the daily increase of new cases reaching 5,522 on Tuesday, the lowest number on a weekday since Dec 14.</p>
<p>The nation of 10.7 million has reported 1.65 million confirmed cases with 27,329 deaths.</p>
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