Hungary licenses new Chinese vaccine and Indian CoviShield

Hungary is the first country in the European Union (EU) to approve for emergency use the coronavirus vaccine from the Chinese company CanSino Biologics and CoviShield, the Indian version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the country’s chief physician announced today.

New infections are rising rapidly in Hungary in a third wave of the pandemic, although vaccine import and vaccination rates are among the highest in the EU as the country uses Chinese, Russian and Western vaccines.

If both vaccines are approved for mass use by the National Health Center, Hungary will have seven sources from which to get vaccines.

It is not clear when and in what quantities Hungary plans to develop the newly licensed vaccines or how it plans to purchase them.

“We are in a race against time,” chief physician Cecilia Miller told a news conference. “We will move earth and sky for as many doses of adequate efficacy and safe vaccines as possible.”

Hospitalization rates are at record levels, and if Prime Minister Victor Orban said on Friday that the health system would cope, some hospitals are facing such an influx of patients that they are seeking help from untrained volunteers.

The spreading third wave is a big challenge for Orban, who said that the stern measures could begin to ease when 2.5 million people, a quarter of the population, have been vaccinated.

In 2022 elections will be held in Hungary.

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