Hungary soon to become the first to use 8 different Covid vaccines

Mass vaccination is currently going on with ten coronavirus vaccines worldwide, from which very soon eight will be used in Hungary, making the country the first and the only one to do so.

For several consecutive days now, Hungary produces record numbers of deaths and newly found cases, while many hospitals are becoming overloaded due to these high numbers. (Read more here about how they are recruiting civilians.) 

On Monday, Hungary became the first EU country to issue a temporary licence for the emergency use of the CoviShield vaccine. The shot is another version of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca and is produced in India. AstraZeneca shared their technology with the Serum Institute of India – that is how CoviShield was developed, writes novekedes.hu.

Globally, the original AstraZeneca vaccine and its Indian version are the most used ones currently in 86 countries of the world.

Another Chinese vaccine, CanSino’s Convidecia, also received approval for emergency use by the National Pharmaceutical and Health Centre. This vaccine works on a similar basis as its competitor CoviShield; they are both vector vaccines of an adenovirus base. However, the Chinese shot is effective by a single dose, contrary to the Indian-produced one. Before Hungary, only three countries approved it: China, Mexico and Pakistan.

• Hungary approves Indian CoviShield vaccine and Chinese CanSino’s Convidecia vaccine

With these two new products,

Hungary has seven licenced coronavirus vaccines.

The first ones were those approved by the European Union: the Pfizer/BionTech and the Moderna serums, followed by the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. The Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm are now complemented by these two new, partially (CoviShield) and completely (Convidecia) Eastern vaccines. Not so long ago, the European Pharmaceutical Agency gave its approval for the use of the American vaccine of Janssen, the affiliate of Johnson&Johnson, which will also be available for Hungarians.

Altogether, eight vaccines will be used in the country soon, which is without another example.

Around the world, there are currently 10 different vaccines in use; however, the local and the Indian versions of the British company are not considered separately.

Most countries vaccinate their people with the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer/BionTech shots, followed by Moderna and Sinopharm. Sputnik V and Sinovac are the next, Covaxin follows, which has only been approved by two other countries apart from its creator, India. Janssen’s vaccine was first registered in South-Africa. However, its emergency use has been authorised in the United States, Canada and even the European Union. The CanSino serum can be used in 4 countries so far.

82 different coronavirus vaccines are currently being tested on people, while 182 others are in a pre-clinical phase,

says the World Health Organization (WHO).

145 countries have started to inoculate their population resulting in the administration of over 448 million doses all around the world.

In most countries, however, a very low percentage of the total population is already protected. Israel is still showing the example by leading the chart; almost 60% of its total population has already received the first dose at least. Great Britain claims second place with 40%.

As of Tuesday, 16.5% of Hungarians have received at least their first dose, two times that of Germans, Spanish, French, and Polish have. 

Read alsoHungary’s medicines authority: Strict regulations must be met for new vaccines from India and China

Source: novekedes.hu