Babis: Discussion of easing restrictions unlikely before Easter

The Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, says the government is unlikely to discuss easing Covid restrictions until after Easter, which takes place in a month’s time. Speaking in an interview in the daily Mladá fronta Dnes, Mr. Babiš said the idea of a total lockdown in the Czech Republic was unrealistic. If all industry in the country was halted the losses would be huge, he said.

The prime minister said that the State Institute for Drug Control was examining the possibility of using Russia’s Sputnik V; the coronavirus vaccine has not yet received approval from the European Medicines Agency. He said, however, that if it was imported into the Czech Republic it would be administered on a voluntary basis.