Czech Minister of Health Adam Vojtech yesterday said that he had submitted his resignation following criticism over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the central European nation experiences a surge in cases.
Vojtech said that his move should create space for a new approach to the pandemic.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis thanked Vojtech for his work in a message on Twitter, saying that he could have been remembered as the nation’s best health minister if he did not have to use all his energy to fight the pandemic.
It was not clear who would replace Vojtech, who was under pressure from the opposition to resign.
The nation has reported growth in confirmed COVID-19 cases at Europe’s second-fastest pace, behind Spain, after the nation just before summer lifted almost all the measures taken during the first wave of the pandemic.
In the past 14 days, the Czech Republic has had 193 cases per 100,000 people, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data showed.
The nation’s daily count of new cases on Sunday dropped to 985, the third consecutive day the number decreased, Czech Ministry of Health data showed yesterday.
On Thursday last week, the day-to-day increase of new cases was higher than 3,000.
The overall number of confirmed cases yesterday rose to 49,290 in the nation of 10.7 million, which has recorded 503 deaths since the pandemic began.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was mulling a second lockdown in England.
The UK already has the biggest COVID-19 death toll in Europe — and the fifth-largest in the world — but new cases are rising by at least 6,000 per day, hospital admissions are doubling every eight days and the testing system is buckling.
“The trend in the UK is heading in the wrong direction and we are at a critical point in the pandemic,” Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty said at a news conference yesterday. “We are looking at the data to see how to manage the spread of the virus ahead of a very challenging winter period.”
Additional reporting by AP
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS