PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech health minister says the government has approved his plan to order medical and other university and high school students to help out at hospitals struggling to cope the record numbers of COVID-19 patients. Health Minister Jan Blatny warned on Friday that hospitals across the country are under “extreme pressure” amid a surge of infections that’s attributed to a highly contagious coronavirus variant. Two of the Czech Republic’s 14 regions have declared their hospitals full. The government has also ordered mandatory mass testing of state employees. The Czech Republic has by far the biggest 14-day rate of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the EU.
