Hospital visiting ban to be lifted next week in Hungary

Hungary will partially lift a ban on hospital visits from Monday, the chief medical officer has said.

Visitors, however, will still not be allowed to visit patients being treated for Covid-19, Cecília Müller told an online press briefing.

Patients in other units will only be allowed one visitor a day, who will have to present an immunity certificate and stay for not more than an hour, she said.

As regards vaccines, Müller said Hungary is scheduled to receive 54,800 doses of the Moderna jab on Thursday and 55,200 doses of AstraZeneca, all of which are to be used as second shots.

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Foreign Minister Szijjártó: Hungary pandemic response most successful in Europe

Hungary’s timely steps to purchase vaccines has allowed it to mount the most effective response to the coronavirus pandemic out of all European countries, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said during a break in a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels on Thursday.

“The reason why we’re in first place in vaccinations in Europe is because we bought enough vaccines in time,” Szijjártó said.

Hungary has enough vaccines in stock, the minister said. The country will have more than 10 million doses of Eastern and Western jabs delivered by the end of next year, he said, adding that those shipments would suffice if a third shot becomes necessary.

Also, Hungary will begin operating its own vaccine plant at the end of 2022, Szijjarto said, adding that the jabs produced there would also be sufficient to inoculate everyone who has registered for vaccination. “This makes it completely unnecessary to buy more vaccines,” he said.

As regards the intellectual property rights on Covid vaccines, Szijjártó said Hungary believed the most important thing was to manufacture as many vaccines in as many places as possible.

“It is by continuously increasing vaccine production capacities that we can best protect the world from the pandemic, and less so by bureaucratic measures,” he said.

Concerning the EU’s planned vaccine passports, Szijjártó said any debate on the matter was premature as long as the bloc’s average vaccination rate was around 30 percent and many member states were struggling to build public trust in and procure vaccines.

“Let’s have enough vaccines first and let’s have people vaccinated,” he said. Hungary will oppose discrimination based on vaccines when it comes to the vaccine passports and rules on entry, he added.

Read alsoWhat can I visit if I am a foreigner not having a Hungarian immunity certificate?

Source: MTI