Czechs hit virus record but see significantly fewer deaths

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic has recorded a significant decline in people dying of COVID-19 despite facing a record number of infected in one month. Over 560,000 new coronavirus were registered in the country in January, by far the most in one month since the beginning of the pandemic amid a record surge of infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.  It was over 150,000 more than the previous record set in November and some 250,000 more than in December last year. Yet, only 978 people died of COVID-19 in January, compared to almost 3,000 in December when the previous delta variant was dominant in the European Union country.