Via The Guardian: Czech health minister set to lose job after breaching his own Covid rules. Excerpt:
The Czech Republic’s health minister is set to lose his job after visiting a Prague restaurant in what appeared to be a breach of emergency coronavirus regulations he had put forward in an effort to win the country’s increasingly desperate battle against coronavirus.
Roman Prymula, an epidemiologist and the main architect of the Czech regulations, was photographed on Wednesday night by the tabloid Blesk leaving the establishment, which appeared to be illicitly open to high-profile guests, hours after a fresh lockdown was imposed to combat the country’s soaring caseload.
His political fate appeared sealed when the prime minister, Andrej Babiš, told him to quit or else be sacked and said he expected to appoint a new health minister. Babiš delivered his verdict on Prymula and one of his own closest allies, Jaroslav Faltýnek, the head of the parliamentary delegation of his Ano party, at a news conference on Friday in response to the restaurant visit.
“We can’t preach water and drink wine. I think that the minister should lead by example without further ado,” he said. “For that reason, I’ve asked the minister to resign. If he doesn’t, I’ll dismiss him. I’ve asked Mr Faltýnek to resign as first vice-president of the Ano movement. I’m very sorry, he apologised to everyone for that.”
