Zoltán Kovács, State Secretary for International Communication and Relations, said that contrary to Politico’s claims, Hungary’s vaccination program is among Europe’s most successful.
Politico sought to cast doubt over the success of Hungary’s strategy of procuring vaccines from the East, writing on Tuesday that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine accounted for less than 3 percent of Hungary’s vaccine supply, while China’s Sinopharm made up around 32 percent. Kovács said Hungary is in second place in the European Union ranking in terms of vaccinations per capita, with 11 percent of the population having been vaccinated compared with the EU average of 6 percent.
Kovács added on Facebook that Hungary was right to have refused to toe the European Union line on vaccines, instead procuring jabs on its own, giving it access to five types of vaccines instead of just three. “Many in Brussels are obviously annoyed by Hungary’s results,” Kovács said. He noted that 1,107,791 people have received their first jab, while 317,906 people have had both inoculations. Of the 2.1 million available vaccines in Hungary, 1.4 million have already been administered and more than 530,000 doses will be used this week, the state secretary added.