Russian vaccine to be used first in Budapest

Inoculations in Hungary using the Russian Sputnik V vaccine will start in Budapest, the chief medical officer said on Tuesday.

As we wrote a before, tests of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, conducted by public health authority NNK, have yielded good results which means that “Sputnik V can be used in Hungary from now on”, the chief medical officer told public media on Sunday.

Cecília Müller told a press conference that 560 GPs in the city will each be asked to select five of their patients who do not suffer from any chronic underlying illnesses, who would then be referred to vaccination points to receive the jab. Fully 2,800 doses of the Russian vaccine are currently available, she said. She added that a further amount of the vaccine enough to inoculate 20,000 people were undergoing laboratory testing before use.

GPs will also be using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week, Müller said, adding that 85,410 doses of that vaccine were expected to arrive on Thursday, alongside 21,600 doses of Moderna.