Foreign minister presents 41,000 doses of vaccine to Czech Republic

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó presented a consignment of 41,000 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine Hungary has lent to the Czech Republic to Andrej Babis, the neighbouring country’s prime minister, on Friday.

The vaccines were handed over in the O2 Universum Centre for national vaccination in Prague.

Thanking the Hungarian government for its help, Babis praised bilateral relations and called Hungary a friend.

“Our Hungarian friends always came to help us if need be, we could always count on them,” Babis told reporters, noting that Hungary had donated 160 new ventilators and 200 hospital beds to help the Czech Republic’s Covid treatments.

Szijjártó said Hungary and the Czech Republic are friends and their economies are interconnected in multiple ways. The two countries’ citizens like to travel as visitors to each other’s country, he said.

As regards Covid-19 immunity certificate, Szijjártó noted that Hungary had concluded bilateral agreements with 11 countries on mutually accepting them and pledged further similar agreements with another two.

“Here we speak about important tourist destination countries,” he said, adding that inoculated citizens of those countries would be allowed to enter Hungary without requiring them to self-quarantine or present a negative Covid test.

Szijjártó denied online reports on certain Czech hotels banning entry of Hungarians inoculated with an eastern vaccine.

“This is not true, it is a lie,” Szijjártó said, adding that the Hungarian embassy in Prague double-checked the information and received a written statement calling it unauthentic.

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Source: MTI