Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is due to receive his third vaccine against Covid-19 next month, shortly before parliamentary elections are due to be held.
Babis is to have his booster shot at Prague’s military hospital on October 7, he said during a televised debate on Friday.
His shot will come a day before the country heads to the polls for a two-day parliamentary election. Advance polling suggests Babis is the favourite.
However, during the debate, he was roundly criticized for his health policies during the pandemic, with challenger Ivan Bartos of the Pirate Party accusing him of gambling away the public’s trust.
“This is the biggest defeat of the Czech government,” he told CT radio, adding that hundreds of thousands of senior citizens have not yet been vaccinated.
“Mr. Bartoš has no information and is not telling the truth,” Babiš said.
Some 65.5 per cent of Czech adults are fully vaccinated, according to information provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
More than 30,400 people have died of Covid-19 in the Czech Republic since the pandemic began.
