PM Orbán and Czech PM Babis agree on the Chinese vaccine issue

The issue of coronavirus vaccines is not a political one but one of safety, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest on Friday, adding that it was therefore wrong to politicise a vaccine’s country of origin.

The best vaccine against Covid-19 is one that is safe and available immediately, Babis told a joint press conference, noting however that the Czech Republic does not have at the moment the required contingent of Covid vaccines either.

He said he had received a detailed briefing on Hungary’s virus response measures, including the country’s authorisation of vaccines that have not yet been approved by the European Union.

He added that the Czech Republic would follow the example of Hungary with regard to these jabs.

Babis said that they were also briefed about the Hungarian medical officer authority’s pandemic response measures and the use of various therapies.

He said he should have visited Hungary as early as last November, to learn useful information from Hungarian experts as he had learned today.

The Czech prime minister thanked Hungary for offering to his country 150 ventilators.

Answering a question, he noted that although the EU had collectively ordered 2.3 billion doses of vaccines paying 3 billion dollars in advance, deliveries were still sluggish.

“This is why we must act, we don’t have time to wait,” Babis said.

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