Coronavirus – Orbán in talks with virus researchers

In the absence of a vaccine, Hungary will need all medicines possible to ease the symptoms of Covid-19, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said. Several drugs are currently being tested or are ready for production in Hungary, “and the aim is to stockpile enough of them”, he said.

Orbán and László Palkovics, the innovation and technology minister, held a videoconference on Thursday with the heads of the teams researching the new coronavirus, to discuss developments necessary in the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry, the prime minister’s press chief, Bertalan Havasi, said.

• Global COVID-19 cases surpass 500,000, vaccine at least 12-18 months away
• First human trial for coronavirus vaccine starts in U.S.

The team heads briefed Orbán on the results so far and on future steps and developments.

Orbán warned that the epidemic was going to “last for a long time, and the brunt of it still lies ahead of us.”

Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler last week commissioned scientists to research possible therapeutic treatments of Covid-19. Among the scientists at the meeting were virologist Ferenc Jakab of the Pecs University, Imre Kacskovics, the dean of the natural sciences faculty at Budapest’s Eotvos University, and Gergely Rost of the Szeged University.

For that matter, the government of Azerbaijan sent 10,000 face masks to the Hungarian embassy in Baku, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post.

The donation marks another show of solidarity in Hungary’s battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak from a member state of the Turkic Council, Szijjártó said.

Preparations are under way to transport the masks to Hungary so that they can be handed out to health-care workers as soon as possible, he added.

Source: MTI