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Hungary to extend its vaccination program to 16-year-olds?
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The Hungarian government aims to vaccinate as many people as it can and has managed to reach the magical number of 2.5 million people who have received at least their first coronavirus jab. This was the margin after which Orbán said that the country could start to gradually reopen, but schools will not be open until later in April.
To help education get back to its normal state, the Hungarian government has prioritised the vaccination of teachers. There are still questions about whether their immunity could develop in such a short time before the reopening of schools, but it is certainly something that was a necessary step in the direction of restoring the pre-COVID operation of schools.
According to Hvg, Viktor Orbán said in a radio interview that he had asked the Operational Board, which is a collection of experts who help the Hungarian government make decisions about the coronavirus and the threats posed by it,
whether children between the ages of 16 and 18 can be vaccinated, and if so, which vaccine is eligible.
Hvg says that from the five different vaccines Hungary currently uses, only one can be given to those between the ages of 16 and 18: the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It was the
European Medicines Agency (EMA) that stated that mRNS-based vaccines can be safely administered to the mentioned age group, while the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are only allowed to be given to people over 18.