A transport of 450,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines arrive in Hungary on Thursday on a government-owned freight plane, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has said.
The plane was purchased in view of experiences of an “air bridge” last spring, established to transport coronavirus-related protection equipment to Hungary, Szijjártó said on Facebook, adding that the plane was expected to give Hungary an edge over the limitations of the market.
“Hungary is now in a position to procure, transport or produce the equipment needed for the protection efforts in an emergency,” Szijjártó said.
Those strategic abilities will enable the country to protect its citizens swiftly and effectively, he added.
Elderly set to be vaccinated by Easter
Hungary’s seniors will receive their coronavirus shots by Easter “depending on the number of those registered”, the prime minister’s chief of staff told a regular press briefing on Thursday.
Gergely Gulyás said the elderly were the age group with the highest ratio of people who have registered for the jab, adding, however that several hundred thousand of them were still unregistered. They will be contacted in a letter encouraging them to follow suit, he said, and suggested that “vaccination is the only tool to rid ourselves of the pandemic”.
