Czechia records highest per-capita COVID-19 case rate worldwide

The Czech Republic had the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the world in mid-February, according to the latest figures from the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC).

The country registered 1,124 cases per 100,000 people between Feb. 8 and Feb. 22, ECDC figures show.

Officials in the Central European country of nearly 11 million reported 4,557 new cases on Monday, bringing its total to 1.24 million. Some 73 people lost their lives to COVID-19, making the death toll 20,469. Currently, 7,049 people are hospitalized with the disease. Recoveries reached 1.07 million with 344 new additions in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, three German states are sending 15,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Czech Republic, German regional MDR television reported on Sunday, citing Saxony's state premier, Michael Kretschmer.

The three states are Saxony and Bavaria, which border the Czech Republic, and their neighbor, Thuringia.

Prague on Friday tightened restrictions on shops, schools and movement for the next three weeks in a bid to slow a surge of coronavirus infections.

France has already pledged to supply 100,000 vaccine doses to the Czech Republic, and Israel has sent 5,000 shots.

Czech President Milos Zeman, meanwhile, said he had written to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to request a supply of Sputnik V doses after a slower than expected vaccination rollout and expects a supply to arrive "in the next few days."

Zeman was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying that he would also welcome China's Sinopharm vaccine in the country that has recorded over 1.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 20,000 deaths, arguing that "vaccines have no ideology."