Hungarian Prime Minister
"My standpoint is that the Chinese have known this virus the longest, so I believe that they probably also know the most about it. Anyway, I’m waiting for my turn, and if at that point I have a choice of vaccines, I’ll ask for the Chinese one", he told state media a month ago.
The government claims that buying from
Vaccination has been heavily overpoliticised. The cabinet blames the opposition for speaking out against vaccines coming from the East as public trust in Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik V is extremely low.
Opposition parties say Orban pressured health authorities to give the green light for these drugs in
After calls by the opposition, the government was forced to admit they had ordered fewer doses from
Statements like that are also at odds with claims that there is no financial burdens to protecting lives. During the first wave
In his regular Friday morning interview with state media, the prime minister did not rule out imposing further restrictions.
This came after stark warnings by officials and Orban himself that the next two weeks would be critical and the situation could worsen dramatically.
Last week
Hungary’s chief medical officer announced over the weekend that the country has changed its vaccination protocol to delay the second jab to favour boosting the vaccination rate. On Saturday a record 104,000 people received a jab, a two-fold increase from the previous days' average.
Over the weekend, the government also amended the decree on the vaccination certificate, which must not indicate the type of jab received. This means that authorities can’t check whether it was a vaccine approved by
The government did not comment on rules introduced by
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