5 Things First: The Top Czech News Headlines

If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. 

• The Czech Republic has considerably improved its position in the implementation of the measures against money laundering and financing of terrorism, the Council of Europe’s (CE) anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL writes in its report released today.

• Some 88 percent of Czech doctors and 83 percent of nurses have been vaccinated against COVID, according to the data of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS). The booster dose has been administered to 54 percent of doctors and 36 percent of nurses.

   

• The outgoing Czech government wants to deploy 150 Czech soldiers to help Poland patrol its border with Belarus, for a period of 180 days (roughly six months).

• Swift approval of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine is being eyed by the Czech Republic. According to the government, protein-based vaccines such as Novavax could convince unvaccinated people to change their minds, as the currently used mRNA vaccines are often targets of massive disinformation campaigns.

   

• Nineteen percent of Czechs reject Covid-19 vaccination, with 14 percent fully determined not to get vaccinated, according to a November survey by the STEM agency. Another 6 percent of people are still hesitant to get the jab.