The new Czech government on Wednesday threw out the previous administration’s plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for over-60s and people in key professions. Under the former government, older adults, health care workers, firefighters, police officers and medical students would have been required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, effective March. But Prime Minister Petr Fiala scrapped his predecessor Andrej Babis’s decree, which was issued in early December. He told reporters Wednesday that his new center-right government did not see the need for mandatory vaccination. “We’ve agreed that vaccination against COVID-19 won’t be mandatory,” Fiala said. ”This does not change our stance on vaccination. It is still undoubtedly the best way to fight COVID-19 … however, we do not want to deepen fissures in society.” Opponents of a vaccine mandate had staged several protests in Prague and elsewhere in the country. So far, 62.9 percent of Czechs are considered fully vaccinated, below …