The Czech Republic has the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll per capita

Czech Prime Minister Adrej Babis will replace the health minister on Wednesday, bringing in a fourth health sector manager since the start of the pandemic, which has hit the central European country hard amid rows over how to respond.

Jan Blatny took the job in October just as COVID-19 infections were spiking, and three peaks of the pandemic since have claimed more than 27,000 lives and put the country of 10.7 million at the top of global rankings for deaths per capita, according to the Our World in Data website. A government spokeswoman said Petr Arenberger, a Prague hospital director, would replace Blatny.

Babis has reprimanded Blatny in the past month over issues such as a lack of support for new COVID-19 medicines and the ministry’s handling of plans to use rapid testing to re-open schools, while Blatny was faced with overflowing hospitals and pressure to keep factories open and to reopen businesses.

Blatny was also a staunch opponent of using the Russian vaccine Sputnik V before European Union regulators approve it.