Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller said the approval for the AstraZeneca jab and the preliminary go-ahead for Sputnik V by Hungary's health authorities is "a big step forward".
According to MTI, Müller said it was important to accelerate vaccination procedures in order to prevent the coronavirus epidemic from deteriorating. She told a press conference of the central board coordinating coronavirus related measures that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine supplies received were only sufficient henceforward for a head count of 165,000. So far, 134,554 people have been vaccinated, including 4,030 who have been given their second shot.
The CMO said the public health center’s laboratories are testing each batch of the two new vaccines before distribution.
Meanwhile, Gergely Gulyás, the PM’S chief of staff, said the government was “forced to find its own sources for a vaccine” as mass vaccination against Covid-19 has not yet started in the EU due to “delays by the European Commission”.
“The government is in talks with every potential supplier including China and Russia,” Gulyás said, adding that only vaccines “that have been used to inoculate several million people” and that the Hungarian authorities deem “safe and effective” would be used.
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