“We could win the fight [against COVID-19] only with vaccines … Today, we have finalized a deal with Russian Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov on the deliveries of Sputnik V vaccines in March. (I have also got inoculated with this vaccine today),” Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook page on late Friday.
Hungary has already authorized the emergency use of Sputnik V without a relevant decision of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), becoming the first EU state to do so. Another EU member that followed suit was Slovakia on March 1.
Hungary has immunized some 14 percent of its population of almost 10 million using Russian, Chinese and EU-approved vaccines.
The high-speed immunization campaign has been spurred by a mutation-driven rise in coronavirus infections and virus-related deaths. The nation has confirmed about 550,000 COVID-19 cases so far, with over 17,000 fatalities.
The EU immunization campaign, meanwhile, has faced another blow after a cascading number of countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of dangerous blood clots and even deaths after getting the shots from a particular batch of shots. Later, the EMA announced that they had not found any evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine was associated with increased risks of blood clot events.
