PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech Republic will get 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from France by mid-March, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told CTK news agency on Thursday.
The Czech Republic has been struggling with resurgent infections in recent weeks and has sought help from allies. It has had one of the highest COVID-19 rates in the world in terms of infections and deaths per million people.
The government is seeking to toughen lockdown measures and speed up inoculations to begin relieving hospitals, many of which are near capacity.
Hit by supply issues, the Czech Republic is lagging the European Union average in vaccination rates according to the Our World in Data website. With a population of 10.7 million, it has administered 600,000 vaccine doses, including 226,780 people who have received both shots, according to Health Ministry data.
Babis said the country was reaching out to other EU states besides France for vaccines.
The Czechs this week received several thousand doses of the Moderna vaccine from Israel, which has outpaced the world in its vaccination progress.
Neighbouring Slovakia, which has been hit just as hard by a new wave of infections, has also called on EU partners for vaccines.
(Reporting by Robert Muller; Writing by Jason Hovet; Editing by Alison Williams and Frances Kerry)
