“We are in a race against time,” Muller said, adding that vaccines were the “only way out of the epidemic” and that Hungary would continue to source vaccines from all over the globe.
Muller said both newly approved vaccines would be available in Hungary in the near future. If they receive approval for mass use by the National Health Center, Hungary will have seven sources from which to draw in practice.
According to the Covid19 Vaccine Tracker, a project by researchers from Canada’s McGill University, Hungary has approved more vaccines than any other nation. The United States has authorized three vaccines for emergency use, while the European Union regulator, the European Medicines Agency, has approved four.
Hungary had broken with its E.U. peers to approve Chinese and Russian vaccines, including not only China’s CanSino vaccine but also Sinopharm’s, also from China, and the Moscow-backed Sputnik V.
Convidecia, the vaccine produced by CanSino, has been approved in China, Mexico and Pakistan. Covishield is a version of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, produced by India’s Serum Institute. More than 20 countries have approved its use, and it has the backing of the World Health Organization and the African Union.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, facing reelection next year, has made a vaccination drive one of the key elements of his pandemic response. On Feb. 28, he posted a photograph of himself receiving the Sinopharm vaccine on his Facebook page with the message, “I am vaccinated.”
On Friday, Orban announced Hungary had given out more than 1.5 million vaccine doses among the country’s population of 9.8 million. Of the large countries in Europe, it is second only to Britain in vaccinations administered per capita.
But the coronavirus continues to hit the country hard, with 81 cases per 100,000 residents, according to a seven-day rolling average tracked by The Washington Post, and a death rate of 1.92 per 100,000 — the second highest in the world, behind the Czech Republic.
Orban has said he wants to lift strict shutdown measures once the country has delivered 2.5 million doses, telling public radio on Friday that there was a “good chance” Hungary could have a “free summer.”