Hungary signs deal for Chinese Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine, first in EU
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BUDAPEST — Hungary became the European Union’s first member to approve China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, sealing a deal on Friday for 5 million doses just a week after becoming the first EU member to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose nationalist government frequently bucks the consensus of its EU neighbors, said he would personally opt to receive the Chinese vaccine, as he trusted it more than others.
The announcement came a day after Hungary’s government issued a decree calling for any vaccine that had been administered to at least 1 million people elsewhere in the world to be given emergency approval.
China has been heavily marketing its two coronavirus vaccines, made by Sinopharm and Sinovac, with millions of doses shipped around the world to developing countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
Meanwhile, EU countries, relying so far almost entirely on a vaccine from Pfizer, have fallen far behind Britain, the United States and a number of developing countries in rolling out vaccines.
Hungary’s drug regulator gave emergency use approval to the Sinopharm vaccine, rather than wait for the bloc’s European Medicines Agency (EMA) to give the go-ahead, adding it to a list that also includes the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines as well as Russia’s Sputnik now approved in Hungary.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page on Friday that the Sinopharm vaccines would be delivered in four batches over four months.
The 5 million doses would enable Hungary to inoculate 2.5 million people, about a quarter of its population, he said. Orban told state radio earlier in the day that the government had been monitoring the outcome of mass inoculations using the Chinese vaccine in neighboring Serbia.
However, the Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK) said Budapest should continue “to follow drug safety rules in a transparent manner and only approve marketing of products after a review respecting European Medicines Agency rules.”
The Chamber could not immediately be reached for further comment. The drug regulator OGYEI and the government both declined immediate comment.
In Hungary, which has close to 10 million people, 364,909 people have been infected and 12,374 people have died of COVID-19 so far.
Even though new infections have been dropping, more than 3,600 people are still in hospital, straining the healthcare system, so the government has extended restrictions until March 1, including a 7 pm curfew and the closure of restaurants. (Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves ; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Angus MacSwan)