With many posters bearing the words “traitors” and pictures of politicians and authorities in the Czech Republic, including Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Health Minister Adam Wojtyk or leading epidemiologists, the protest was peaceful, unlike recent demonstrations in the city. The Netherlands and Belgium.
The catchphrase was “freedom” for non-vaccinators, in refutation of the government’s call to increase the number of vaccinated people in that country, according to the Associated Press.
The number of demonstrators was less than a similar demonstration that took place last week.
The Czech Republic has implemented new restrictions to deal with a spike in coronavirus infections, which took effect on Monday, mainly targeting non-immunized cases.
Those who have not yet been vaccinated can no longer test negative for covid-19 to get to public events or go to bars, restaurants, hairdressers or museums, unlike those who have been vaccinated or have recovered from the disease.
The measures were approved in an effort to increase that country’s vaccination rate, which is 58.1%, below the EU average of 65.5%.
SARS-CoV-2 infections are increasing in the Czech Republic and twice reached a new high last week.
In the past seven days, the infection rate exceeded 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents, for the first time, according to data issued by the Czech Ministry of Health.
This country of 10.7 million people has recorded more than 2 million cases and 32,173 deaths due to COVID-19.
Covid-19 has caused at least 5,148,939 deaths worldwide, among more than 256.91 million new coronavirus infections recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest report by AFP based on official sources.
The disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which was discovered in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
