Over 300,000 register for vaccination in Hungary

So far, 307,000 Hungarians have registered for vaccination against Covid-19, a state secretary of the prime minister’s cabinet told MTI on Tuesday.

Csaba Dömötör noted that vaccination would be provided on a voluntary basis and registration was instrumental in estimating public demand.

The first vaccines are expected to arrive in Hungary after Christmas and health workers will get inoculated initially.

Minister Gergely Gulyás said

voluntary and free Covid-19 testing would be offered to kindergarten and school staff who can reserve dates between December 23 and 30.

Testing will be carried out by the government offices, he said.

Gulyás also said in response to a question that the lifting of the curfew restrictions for the night of December 24 would not increase health risks significantly and the government wanted to ensure that people can attend midnight mass. He said the current special legal order will expire on February 7, but can be extended by the government for 15 days, and then by parliament which will again meet following February 15.

The epidemic will end once a vaccine is available in enough quantity, he said. The government has reserved 16 million doses of vaccine through the European Union which is sufficient for the inoculation of 8 million people.

Once 60-65 percent of the population gets vaccinated, “herd immunity” will be achieved, he added.

Asked whether people who get vaccinated will get different treatment from those who don’t, he said there would certainly be some regulations that differentiate between them, for instance by airline companies. A “vaccination book” will be an important document next to passports and IDs following mass vaccinations, he added.

He said in response to a question about digital education that the operative board would decide between the holidays whether it would be maintained after January 11.

He also said that the government would invite EU tenders to a value of several thousand billion forints between January and March, which will enable companies to get capital in a difficult economic period and to preserve or create jobs. The cabinet hopes that this will contribute to “tangible” economic growth in 2021, he added.