Prague, Feb 25, (dpa/GNA) – France will provide the Czech Republic with 100,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from its own quota to help out the country, which has recently seen resurgent infection rates, the Czech government announced on Thursday.
Paris has promised 100,000 doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, expected to be delivered in March, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was quoted as saying by news agency CTK.
Prague hailed the move as a “gesture of solidarity,” which it also considered to be a loan to be repaid from the country’s own quota at a later date.
Vaccine deliveries from a joint EU order are usually distributed to member states on a per capita basis.
Previously, Israel had donated 5,000 doses of Moderna vaccine to the Czech Republic, which currently has the highest infection rates in the EU.
Babis warned of a “total disaster” in hospitals. The lockdown currently in place is expected to be tightened.
The Health Ministry in Prague on Thursday reported 13,657 new infections within 24 hours. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country of about 10.7 million has reported almost 1.2 million coronavirus cases and almost 20,000 deaths.
GNA