At the Operational Group’s regular press conference, officials announced that on Monday, the number of people vaccinated against coronavirus in Hungary topped 1 million.
While the third wave of the pandemic is raging across the continent, in recent weeks Hungary managed to speed up its vaccination game, surpassing all EU countries except Malta, and is now ranked second in the European Union in terms of COVID-19 vaccines administered per 100 inhabitants. Based on the latest statistics, 10.26 percent of Hungary’s population has already received at least the first dose of the shot, with many Western European countries, like Belgium, France and Sweden, still struggling to reach the six percent mark.
What’s more, according to data collected over the weekend, Hungary inoculated 2.01 percent of its population in the previous three days, while the EU as a whole vaccinated only a mere 0.7 percent of Europeans. That’s 2.5 times faster than the EU average.
So, not only has Hungary vaccinated more of the population, it’s also making more rapid progress.
On a global scale, according to a New York Times article on tracking vaccinations, Hungary ranks 12th in the world in doses administered per 100 people.
Besides the country’s extensive healthcare infrastructure and the expertise of our world-class professionals, Hungary’s current vaccination success is thanks to the government’s timely decision to look for alternative sources in light of a sluggish EU vaccine procurement scheme.
In a radio interview on Sunday, Gergely Gulyás, the minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, said that while the second place in the EU vaccination race is already a reason to celebrate, with 400,000 more vaccinations scheduled by Wednesday, Hungary may soon come out on top of the leaderboard.