Five million vaccinated within weeks, next lockdown eases are coming

The number of people vaccinated against the coronavirus could reach five million within a few weeks, the leading infectologist of Budapest’s South Pest Central Hospital said on Monday.

János Szlávik told news channel M1 that six or seven million vaccinated will be necessary to achieve herd immunity in the country.

“The aim is to have as many people vaccinated as possible,” he said.

“I believe Hungary is making good progress and I trust that the demand for vaccination will not slow down in the next few weeks,” he added.

Despite the favourable vaccination figures, there are still many elderly people who have not signed up for a shot, he said.

Commenting on the Indian variant of the virus, he said the variant was dangerous because it was spreading faster than others, adding, however, that vaccines offer protection against it “to a certain extent”.

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Latest numbers: 106 fatalities, 1,219 new infections

Fully 106 patients, generally elderly with co-morbidities, died over the past 24 hours, while 1,219 new infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Monday.

So far 4,073,149 people have received a first jab, while 2,077,160 have been fully vaccinated.

The number of active infections has declined to 228,002, while hospitals are treating 4,872 Covid patients, 572 of whom need respiratory assistance.

There are 27,386 people in official quarantine, while 5,429,737 tests have been officially carried out.

Since the first outbreak, 784,111 infections have been registered, while fatalities have risen to 27,908.

Fully 528,201 people have made a recovery.

So far, most infections have been registered in Budapest and Pest County, followed by the counties of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Győr-Moson-Sopron and Hajdú-Bihar.

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Source: MTI