More than half of the elderly Hungarians registered for vaccination against Covid-19 have now received their shots, the chief epidemiologist of the Public Health Centre said on Friday.
Ágnes Galgóczi, speaking at the press conference of the central coronavirus board, said that the goal was to complete the vaccination process as soon as possible. So far, 1,478,000 people have received at least their first shot, including 444,451, who are fully inoculated, she said.
Referring to a Thursday statement by the European Medicines Agency, Galgóczi said that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe to use, with no increased risk of developing blood clots. “Its benefits far surpass possible risks,” she said, noting that several hundred thousand Hungarians had been inoculated with the product.
Concerning the Janssen vaccine, Galgóczi said that it was not expected to arrive in Hungary before the second half of April. “As soon as it is here, we will use it,” she added.
Answering a question, the official said that so far the British coronavirus variant had been identified in 1,397 Hungarian samples, while 13 samples contained the Czech and 6 the South African types. The Brazilian variant of the virus has not been reported in Hungary, she said.
Featured photo illustration by Péter Komka/MTI
