According to Czech media broke the news on October 23, Minister of Health Primula violated the epidemic prevention regulations he participated in by entering a restaurant on Wednesday night (October 21) and did not wear a mask when leaving the restaurant. The report also published photos of the scene of the incident.
According to the current Czech epidemic prevention policy requirements, from the 14th of this month, all restaurants in the country are prohibited from providing dine-in services, and only the sale of takeaways is allowed; from the 21st, if people cannot maintain a two-meter social distance in an outdoor environment, they must Wear a mask. Most of the above-mentioned epidemic prevention regulations were announced by Primula himself.
After the news was exposed, it caused an uproar from all walks of life. Czech Prime Minister Babiš asked Primula to resign and described the incident as “a total disaster” and “an unforgivable error.” Primula insisted that he was not at fault and refused to resign.
The Czech’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Hamaček said that Primula’s actions violated the epidemic prevention regulations he himself advocated and mocked his citizens. He has completely lost his credibility and cannot continue to represent the country. And the government. The opposition party accused Primula of arrogance and inconsistency, claiming that Primula’s decision to refuse to resign undermined the public’s trust in the government and its ability to fight the epidemic.
Because Primula refused to resign, on the afternoon of the 23rd, Babis submitted to President Zeman a written proposal for the removal of Primula and a list of successors. Faltýnek, the first vice chairman of the “Dissatisfied Citizen Action” party, who met with Primula in the restaurant, submitted his resignation and announced his resignation from the party.
Recently, in the Czech Republic, a central European country with a population of only 10 million, the situation of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has deteriorated sharply. From the 20th to the 23rd, the number of new cases in a single day exceeded 10,000, and the total number of confirmed cases was nearly 240,000. Since the Czech government declared a state of emergency at the beginning of this month, it has successively introduced a series of epidemic prevention regulations, and even partly blocked the economy to curb the spread of the epidemic. As Prime Minister Babis said, the timing of this incident “cannot be worse.”
Primula is 56 years old and is an epidemiologist. When the epidemic broke out in the Czech Republic in March this year, he served as the Deputy Minister of Health and resigned in mid-May. On September 21, Primula succeeded Vojtekh, who had announced his resignation abruptly, and assumed the post of Minister of Health. It has only been a month since.
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The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic answered reporters’ questions on the remarks of the Czech Minister of Health on the issue of virus traceability
Q: According to Czech media reports, on October 22, Czech Minister of Health Primula told members of the Czech Parliament that it is almost certain that the new crown virus originated from a leak in a Chinese laboratory, but it was not made by humans. What is China’s comment?
A: If the relevant report is true, China is very puzzled by Minister Primula’s remarks. As an expert in the field of health, he should be aware that tracing the source of the new coronavirus is a complex scientific question and there is no definite answer yet. Before drawing conclusions on this, we need to produce tangible evidence. The use of “almost” is neither rigorous nor responsible. We firmly oppose this.
Since the outbreak, China and the WHO have maintained close communication and cooperation on the traceability of the new crown virus, and Chinese scientists have also conducted scientific exchanges with their international counterparts. China was the first country to notify the epidemic, but this does not mean that the epidemic originated in China. A lot of information and surveys show that the whereabouts of the virus have been discovered in many countries and locations around the world, and it was discovered many times earlier than China. WHO officials have stated that the traceability of the virus is a continuous development process that may involve multiple countries and locations; as the process progresses, it is necessary to be open to multiple possibilities for the source of the virus. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, has also said that existing evidence shows that the new coronavirus does not come from a Chinese laboratory.
China has always believed that solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon for the international community to defeat the epidemic. China will continue to support scientists from various countries to carry out global scientific research on the source and transmission of the virus, and hope that all countries in the world will actively cooperate with this effort. It is hoped that the increasingly serious epidemic in the Czech Republic will be brought under control as soon as possible.
