The Czech prime minister said Tuesday the country would swap its health minister for the fourth time since the Covid outbreak with a former pop show contestant returning to the job. Adam Vojtech, a former lawyer best known for singing in the Czech version of the "Idol" series, will replace Petr Arenberger, who has come under fire over his property declaration. "Minister Arenberger told me he would resign this morning," Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters. Vojtech was health minister until last September when he quit after leading the country through the first Covid-19 wave with relatively few casualties. He was replaced by epidemiologist Roman Prymula, who was sacked after being caught violating his own anti-Covid restrictions in a closed Prague restaurant a month later. Pediatric haematologist Jan Blatny followed and stayed on until April when he was replaced by Arenberger, a Prague hospital head. During Blatny's spell, the Czech Republic topped global statistics for the most Covid cases and deaths per capita for several months. The EU member of 10.7 million people has so far seen over 1.6 million confirmed cases and more than 30,000 deaths. It has recently embarked on an easing of restrictions following a steady decrease in the daily infection growth rates. Arenberger has faced criticism over his failure to mention a large part of his property portfolio in his declaration. Babis said Vojtech was "a good minister" and that he would stay until his government resigns following a general election in October. frj/dt/wdb