Eastern Vaccines Praised By Foreign Minister
- 17 Mar 2021 9:01 AM
- Hungary Matters
The lives of many more Hungarians and Serbs have been saved thanks to Eastern vaccines bought by the two countries, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Belgrade after talks with counterpart Nikola Selaković.
Szijjártó said neither government had made the vaccine into an ideological issue and both countries trusted their own experts.
“Both the Serbian and Hungarian governments paid heed to common sense,” he said. “We set ourselves the single goal of protecting the lives and health of our citizens.”
Meanwhile, the minister said Hungary is involved in talks on Covid passports, adding that these “should not discriminate against anyone”. The validity of passports should not only be based on the approval of vaccines by the European Medicines Agency but also on the emergency approval given by national authorities.
“Hungary wouldn’t accept only one form of approval being recognised…” he said.
Answering a question about the suspension of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in several countries, Szijjártó said Hungary was also monitoring the effect of the vaccine, and its experts would decide on any further steps to be taken.
He said both Serbia and Hungary were top of the European vaccination rankings thanks to their willingness to buy Eastern vaccines.
He added that Hungary will receive another 100,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday.
A series of deliveries of Eastern Covid vaccines in recent weeks have allowed Hungary to accelerate its vaccination programme, giving it the second highest vaccination rate in the European Union, Szijjártó said.
The first 1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived 20 days before the delivery deadline, the minister said. After talks between the two governments, China has agreed to begin delivering the shipments that are due to be delivered by the end of April, Szijjártó said.
A cargo plane is set to depart for China within a matter of hours, and will return to Budapest with 100,000 vaccine doses, he added.
This shipment, he noted, was being delivered 43 days before the deadline. The previous consignment of 450,000 doses of the vaccine was delivered to Hungary last Thursday.
MTI Photo: Zoltán Máthé
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