Folk Singer Dies After Catching COVID on Purpose

A Czech singer has died from COVID after catching the virus on purpose to avoid restrictions. 

Hanka Horká, 57, who was unvaccinated, posted on Facebook saying how she had survived the virus days before she died. 

“I can reveal, yes, I’ve recovered from COVID… however, it was very colourful,” she said in a post. “There will be theatre, sauna, theatre, concert, sauna. Life is here for me and for you too.”

Her son, Jan Rek, said she had purposely spent time with him and his father after they tested positive. Rek and his father had both been vaccinated, but Horká had not and had attempted to catch COVID in order to get a recovery pass.

"She should have isolated for a week because we tested positive. But she was with us the whole time," Rek told the BBC. 

Rek said his mother did not believe in the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the virus. 

“Her philosophy was that she was more OK with the idea of catching Covid

than getting vaccinated,” he said. “Not that we would get microchipped or anything like that.”

However, he lashed out at anti-vaxxers on social media, appearing to blame them for his mother’s death. 

“'You took my mother, who based all her arguments on your basis,” he wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post. “I despise you, you are an absolute waste.”

In the Czech Republic, people are required to show a vaccine pass or proof of immunity in order to enter public venues like theatres. However, the country recently dropped plans to introduce mandatory vaccines after thousands protested against them. 

On Sunday – the morning Horká died – Rek says his mother dressed for a walk after claiming to feel better. After experiencing some back pain, she then went to lie down in her bedroom.

"In about 10 minutes it was all over," said Rek. "She choked to death".

Horká had been a singer with Czech collective Asonance since 1985, performing Irish and Scottish folk songs. 

Around 63 percent of the Czech Republic's population has been vaccinated against coronavirus, similar to the numbers in the US but lagging behind other European nations.