Czech Republic changes its health minister for 4th time as COVID crisis worsens

Czech Republic’s current prime
minister Andrej Babis said on Tuesday that the country would swap its Health
Minister for the fourth time since the COVID-19 outbreak with a former pop show
contestant returning to the job.

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Adam Vojtech, a lawyer best known for singing
in the Czech version of the “Idol” series, will replace the current
health minister Petr Arenberger, who has come under fire after allegations that he had withheld information about supplementary income.

“Minister Arenberger told me he would resign this
morning,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters. Vojtech was health
minister of Czech until last September when he quit after leading the country
through the first Covid-19 wave with relatively few casualties.

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Vojtech was replaced by epidemiologist Roman Prymula, who
was dismissed after being caught violating his anti-Covid restrictions in a
closed Prague restaurant a month later.

Pediatric hematologist Jan Blatny followed and stayed on
until April when he was replaced by Arenberger, a Prague hospital head. During
Blatny’s spell, the Czech Republic topped global statistics for the foremost
Covid cases and deaths per capita for several months.

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The EU member of 10.7
million people has so far seen over 1.6 million confirmed cases and more than
30,000 deaths. It has recently embarked on an easing of restrictions following
a gentle decrease within the daily infection growth rates.

Arenberger has faced criticism over his failure to mention a
large part of his property portfolio in his declaration. Babis said Vojtech was
“a good minister” which he would stay until his government resigns
following an election in October.