The Czech Republic started administering vaccinations against the new coronavirus on Sunday, part of a push against the pandemic across the European Union.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis was the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Central Military Hospital in Prague, just before other hospitals in the capital and second-largest city Brno started to distribute the 9,750 doses the country has received so far.

“The vaccine which arrived from the European Union yesterday, that is a hope, a hope that we will return to a normal life,” Babis said before taking the jab.

Emilie Repikova, 95, a World War Two veteran, was also one of the first to be inoculated, shortly after Babis.

The country closed non-essential shops, services and ski lifts and enforced a stricter curfew from Sunday as it seeks to curb another rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations.

Reuters