Hungary ‘Among Safest Countries in Europe’, Says PM's Chief of Staff
- 16 Sep 2021 6:38 AM
- Hungary Matters
Hungary is among Europe's "safest and freest" counties today in terms of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the prime minister’s chief of staff told a government press briefing.
Gergely Gulyás said the fourth wave of the pandemic would be fundamentally different from the previous ones in Hungary thanks to the country’s vaccination drive, adding that the government had no intention of bringing back lockdowns.
He said the elderly were still vulnerable, and appealed to people who have not got vaccinated to do so. Gulyás said booster jabs were primarily recommended for people over the age of 60.
The government has done everything it could to facilitate the vaccination of the elderly, he said, adding that all data indicated that the vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalisation and death from Covid.
Hungary has plenty of vaccines available, and it will join EU procurements of vaccines for the under-12s should a vaccine be approved for this age group, he added.
Hungary has 3.3 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in stock, in addition to 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca, some 300,000 doses of Jansen, 77,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik jab and 2.6 million of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, he said.
Hungary Records 5 Covid Deaths, 479 New Infections
Five patients died over the past 24 hours of a Covid-related illness, while 479 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said.
So far 5,855,039 people have received a first jab, while 5,564,586 have been fully vaccinated. Fully 590,000 Hungarians have already received a booster jab.
The number of active infections stands at 7,259, while hospitals are treating 353 Covid patients, 41 of whom need respiratory assistance.
Since the first outbreak, 817,159 infections have been registered, while fatalities have risen to 30,123.
Fully 779,777 people have made a recovery.
There are 4,605 people in official quarantine, while 6,768,975 tests have been officially carried out.
So far, most infections have been registered in Budapest and Pest County, followed by the counties of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Győr-Moson-Sopron and Hajdú-Bihar.
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