PRAGUE: The health minister of the hard-hit Czech Republic has been under fire to resign after a media report that he broke strict government restrictions and visited a Prague restaurant.
The Blesk tabloid daily said Health Minister Minister Roman Prymula met with Jaroslav Faltynek, deputy head of the senior government ANO (YES) movement led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, on Wednesday night.
Amid tight restrictions, restaurants, bars, schools are closed. The meeting took place just hours after Prymula announced the latest series of regulations, including a limit on movement and the closure of many stores.
The junior government coalition party, the Social Democrats, joined the opposition to demand Prymula’s resignation, calling his behavior “absolutely unacceptable.” In photographs, Prymula didn’t wear a mandatory mask.
Faltynek said he asked Prymula to meet to discuss an extraordinary parliament session that is set to approve a plan for NATO military medical personnel to come to the Czech Republic to help with the outbreak.
Prymula didn’t immediately comment.
The Czech Republic has been facing record coronavirus infections that put the health system under pressure. The Health Ministry says daily confirmed cases reached 14,151 on Thursday, after the record of almost 15,000 the day earlier.
The country has had 223,065 cases, about a third of them in the last seven days while 1,845 people have died.