Czechs report highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases since April

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech Republic detected 2,521 new cases of COVID-19 on Oct. 18, the highest daily tally since late April, data from the Health Ministry showed on Tuesday.

The Czech government has opted not to tighten anti-epidemic measures, focusing on vaccination instead as data show that most of those infected have not been inoculated.

The country of 10.7 million has fully vaccinated 6.03 million people as of Monday.

The daily count reported for Monday is almost double the reported number for the same day last week.

Hospitalisations rose to 544, the highest number since the end of May, but still a fraction of the numbers in March, when the last wave of the pandemic swept over the country.

Over the past seven days, 54 people died in connection with COVID-19, more than in the whole month of September.

(Reporting by Robert Muller, Editing by Louise Heavens and Andrew Heavens)