Semmelweis University, Hungary’s top medical school and the Hungarian unit of AstraZeneca signed a strategic partnership agreement, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company said on Thursday.
The agreement concerns the extension of joint research and development activity, joint programmes for the treatment and diagnosis of patients and studies of diseases such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiac failure.
AstraZeneca has already cooperated with the university in almost two-thirds of its clinical trials but this percentage could exceed 80 percent as a result of the new partnership,
they said. Béla Merkely, the university’s rector said the results of the joint work are expected to be utilised in patient care.
AstraZeneca spends 2 billion forints (EUR 5.57m) a year on R+D activity in Hungary. AstraZeneca Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato had revenue of more than 15 billion forints in 2020, including export sales of 2.5 billion forints.
Altogether 64 patients died of a Covid-related illness in the past 24 hours, while 19,213 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Thursday.
So far 6,347,426 people have received a first jab, while 6,085,866 have been double-jabbed. Fully 3,573,570 Hungarians have received a booster shot.
The number of active infections has risen to 215,839, while hospitals are treating 3,267 Covid-19 patients, 157 of whom are intubated on a ventilator.
Since the first outbreak, 1,490,489 have been registered with the virus, while 41,151 deaths have been recorded. Fully 1,233,499 people have made a recovery.
A new survey shows what percentage of the population would be okay with mandatory vaccination.
In Hungary, there are 6 million 342 thousand people who got at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 6.1 million people received two jabs, and 3.5 million got a third, booster vaccine out of the total number. – writes napi.hu. The portal published the results of a survey that Pulzus-kutató conducted. The figures show how many Hungarians are in favour of mandatory vaccination and how many refuse it.
In November, 44% were against mandatory vaccination. Now, 59% of people refuse the idea of mandatory vaccination. Members of the older generation, individuals with a college degree, and Budapest residents are mostly the ones who would be in favour of mandatory vaccination. The younger generation and residents of county seats are the most against it.
54% of Budapest residents who vote are in favor of making vaccines compulsory. As opposed to this, only 35% of residents of county seats are in favour of it. 63% of settlement residents, 61% of people living in cities, and 46% of Budapest locals are against mandatory jabs. Only 27% of people aged 18-39 years old would make vaccination obligatory, 47% of middle-aged people would support the same idea, and 54% of people above the age of 60 are in favour of mandatory jabs. 52% of graduates would introduce mandatory immunisation.
While many people are still against taking the vaccine, parties organised with the aim to get the virus are an opportunity considered by some people in various countries. Doctors, however, say it should not be an option.
Emergency doctor Gábor Zacher told RTL that coronavirus is neither a joke nor a game. According to him, a so-called Omicron party is like Russian roulette. He says that people cannot know what post-covid health issues the infected people may have to deal with or how the organs change because of the virus. He has not heard of COVID-19 parties in Hungary, but he warns people against trying to intentionally get the virus.
This is in accordance with the messages that most doctors are trying to convey: vaccinated or not, people should take the virus seriously. Some people get through the illness with mild symptoms, while others end up in hospitals or worse.
Hungary will donate 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Ecuador at the request of that country’s government, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday.
Szijjártó said on Facebook that the move was expected to enable Ecuador to speed up its vaccination campaign so it can better combat the pandemic.
Hungary has a vested interest in speeding up of the vaccination campaign everywhere in the world, as slow campaigns and low vaccination rates are the main causes of the development of new variants and mutations of the virus, he said. These variants can then quickly get to Europe, which must be prevented, he added.
As the only European country with an embassy in the South American country, Hungary has already developed close cooperation with Ecuador,
Economic cooperation has been expanding and an increasing number of Hungarian companies have started successful operation in the Ecuadorian market, also using it as a starting point to expand further in Latin America, he said.
As part of health-care cooperation,
Hungary has previously supplied to Ecuador 20,000 doses of vaccines against children’s diseases and sent 100,000 masks,
After the booster shot, the vaccination card will be valid indefinitely.
Vaccination card instead of immunity card
On 13 January, Gergely Gulyás, the Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, announced at the Cabinet briefing (Kormányinfó) that the current immunity card will turn into a vaccination card from 15 February. The government decree on the vaccination card was later published in Magyar Közlöny.
As Telex reported, from that day on, only the ones who are vaccinated will have a valid card, the Government Information Centre (GIC) said in a statement. According to GIC,
“Unvaccinated people will not be eligible for a vaccination card. Any current immunity certificate that was issued for contracting the infection will lose its validity.”
The card will be valid for six months after the second dose, after which the validity will be extended only after the third (booster) shot. If someone becomes infected after the second vaccination, their card will be valid for six months from the date of the confirmation of the infection.
After the third (booster) vaccination, the validity of the card will be indefinite. For those vaccinated with the single-dose Janssen (Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine), there will be a separate rule.
They must take the second vaccination (which is the booster shot in their case) within 6 months for the card to remain valid.
For those under 18 years of age, one jab for the single-dose vaccine and two jabs for the double-dose vaccine are sufficient for the immunity card to remain valid.
There will be no need to replace the current immunity cards, the QR code will be used to check the validity of the document. The GIC also emphasises in its statement that operators of sites and organisers of events that are only accessible to vaccinated persons must check the vaccination cards.
Fake vaccination certificates
Even though these certificates are important in making sure that everyone has taken the necessary measures to stay safe in the COVID situation, some people resort to trying to obtain fake vaccination cards.
What is even sadder is that some doctors assist in it.
As we wrote in one of our previous articles, doctors had started to take part in these illegal activities, as well as asking for great amounts of money from these “customers”. Thankfully, the Hungarian police managed to track down those who have taken part in issuing fake vaccination certificates.
PM Viktor Orbán said he in his morning interview that he was against privatising health-care services, while “health privatisation has persistently been included in the left-wing programme because many of them have lobbied for business groups interested in a private health care … they have an interest in opening up business opportunities for international investors.”
While Hungary is “on the right track, it is far from being a rich country yet,” he said, adding that the privatisation of health care would mean low earners being left without health services. The government aims to ensure the best possible services through a state-owned and state-controlled health system, Orbán added.
The ruling government is giving the 13th month pensions and has regularly raised the minimum wage and salaries in certain sectors, he said, adding that the labour market was now tight,
tax rates were “very good in European comparison, and economic growth is around 7 percent rather than 2 or 3 percent,”
he added.
Orbán said that besides “mistakes and sins committed until 2010”, the leftist parties had also refused to support the government’s efforts to rectify those missteps afterwards, Orbán said. They did not vote for proposals or tax cuts or the re-introduction of the 13th month pension, and regularly attacked recent measures such as the caps on food and fuel prices and the interest rate cap on mortgages with variable interest rates, he said.
in a way that offends doctors and nurses, and degrades the work done in hospitals.” Hungary’s health-care system is working hard to help all those in need, and workers deserve commendation for that, he said. The vaccine rollout is going well everywhere, he added.
While discussions on the best way to organise pandemic protection efforts are useful, the Hungarian opposition “falsified facts, produced fake videos and weakened the effectiveness of the protection efforts,” he said. “The left wing cannot differentiate between attacking the government and degrading the country,” he said.
On the subject of the coronavirus situation, Orbán said that
the number of new cases was on the rise, but fewer people needed to be intubated on a ventilator and the number of hospitalisations was significantly lower than new infections.
Altogether 65 patients died of a Covid-related illness over the past 24 hours, while 15,957 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Friday.
So far 6,329,185 people have received a first jab, while 6,073,498 have been double-jabbed. Fully 3,457,497 Hungarians have received a booster shot.
The website said the omicron variant was spreading rapidly, accounting for more than 90 percent of all infections.
The number of active infections has risen to 167,425, while hospitals are treating 2,674 Covid-19 patients, 201 of whom are intubated on a ventilator.
Since the first outbreak, 1,401,457 have been registered with the virus, while 40,822 deaths have been recorded. Fully 1,193,120 people have made a recovery.
Altogether 71 patients died of a Covid-related illness over the past 24 hours, while 15,526 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Thursday.
So far 6,325,143 people have received a first jab, while 6,069,677 have been double-jabbed. Fully 3,437,335 Hungarians have received a booster shot. The website said the omicron variant was spreading rapidly, accounting for 87 percent of all infections.
The number of active infections has risen to 158,424,
while hospitals are treating 2,673 Covid-19 patients, 202 of whom are intubated on a ventilator.
Since the first outbreak, 1,385,500 have been registered with the virus, while 40,757 deaths have been recorded. Fully 1,186,319 people have made a recovery.
Telex.hu reported that 18 kindergarten groups are in quarantine in the 3rd district because of the coronavirus. The virus spreads unstoppably among the kids. In the 2nd district, 374 children are at home. In the 12th district, 13 groups are in quarantine out of the 66. The Normafa kindergarten closed because of the virus.
In Gyömrő, a city near Budapest, they had to close a kindergarten because
only four people of the staff work.
In Hódmezővásárhely, where the united opposition’s PM candidate, Péter Márki-Zay is the mayor, two groups are in quarantine. In Zalaegerszeg, seven institutions have kids or kindergarten teachers with a positive test.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 87 percent of infections in Hungary, according to the chief medical officer.
Those most at risk of severe illness from the virus are still the unvaccinated, Cecília Müller said in a video message published on the government’s Facebook page on Wednesday.
She urged everyone over the age of 12 who received their second Covid vaccine dose over four months ago to get a booster shot as well.
Müller noted that Hungarians can continue to get jabs without registration on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
A Hungarian citizen is to sue the government because he lost two of his relatives in the coronavirus epidemic. He said that his mother did not receive the proper vaccine, and he could not say goodbye to his sister.
According to hvg.hu, Jenő Ferincz lives in Nagykanizsa, Zala county. His sister died of coronavirus in the local Szent Rafael Hospital. His mother died of the complications that followed after she got the virus in the Kanizsai Dorottya Hospital. He talked about his story to today’s Népszava and added that he would sue the government.
Mr Ferincz said that the Kanizsai Dorottya Hospital did not let him say goodbye to his sister. By the time he arrived in the institute, the nurses had already taken his sister to the pathology. Based on the rules, he could not enter there. Moreover, he could only take the last glimpse of his mother in another local hospital through the window glass.
He criticised the measure of the hospitals and highlighted
he was not even sure whether he got the ashes of his relatives from the hospitals.
Hungarian hospitals are treating Covid-19 patients. Photo: MTI
“There were a lot of cases when hospital staff mixed up the bodies. Thus, I cannot be sure.” Beáta Gasztonyi, the director of the Szent Rafael Hospital, said that they use special disinfection in the pathology department. Therefore, nobody can enter. She added that mixing up bodies could not happen thanks to their relevant, strict protocol.
The man complained that he had to pay for the dressing costs of his sister even though the hospital does not dress people who died of COVID-19.
An expert of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) told Népszava that, in the case of patients in the final stadium, hospitals could not ban visits. Beatrix Vissy added that provided the medical professionals realise they cannot save a person’s life, they have to notify the relatives immediately.
In the case of COVID-19 patients, rules might be stricter, but they cannot ban people from saying goodbye to their relatives.
Jenő Ferincz now plans to sue the government. He said that his mother received the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, which did not provide the needed protection. He added that his mother could not choose because that was the only available type back then. In a radio interview,
PM Viktor Orbán cleared that he and his government bore all responsibility for the decisions during the pandemic.
That is why he wants to sue the government for the deaths of his relatives.
As we reported before, since the first outbreak, 1,355,084 infections have been registered, while 40,601 deaths have been recorded in Hungary. In the past 24 hours, altogether 94 patients died of a Covid-related illness, while 6,851 new coronavirus infections were registered.
Altogether 85 patients died of a Covid-related illness over the past 24 hours, while 14,890 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Wednesday.
So far 6,322,905 people have received a first jab, while 6,066,056 have been double-jabbed. Fully 3,430,445 Hungarians have received a booster shot.
The website said the omicron variant was spreading rapidly.
The number of active infections has risen to 147,573, while hospitals are treating 2,645 Covid-19 patients, 208 of whom are intubated on a ventilator.
Since the first outbreak, 1,369,974 have been registered with the virus, while 40,686 deaths have been recorded. Fully 1,181,715 people have made a recovery.
As 444.hu reported, Péter Márki-Zary caught the virus and produced a positive COVID test at dawn. Therefore, the opposition’s PM candidate postponed all his official programs and would continue his work from home quarantine. He said that he had light symptoms and received three jabs.
Israel is developing a new vaccine, and Hungary is the first European country to join the program and test the new Israeli vaccine.
The development of the new vaccine and the test phase
Israel has been developing its own COVID-19 vaccine. Research and development have been going on for a year and a half, says egészségkalauz.hu. Phase 2b / 3 of the Israeli vaccine called BriLife is currently being tested. Hungary is the first in Europe to test the vaccine.
The developers of Israel’s own vaccine are the pharmaceutical company NRx in collaboration with the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR).
The vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which is a virus that infects animals such as cattle, horses and pigs, serves as the cure. This virus is genetically modified so that SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike proteins can grow on its surface, explains atv.hu. The genetically modified vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) is then administered to the human body in a living form. The virus, although not a coronavirus, contains spikes on its surface due to genetic engineering modifications.
Vaccinated individuals will receive the vesicular stomatitis virus, dressed in the crown protein garment of the coronavirus, as an injection into the muscle. Coronavirus spike proteins will be the ones that stimulate the immune system, triggering an immune response.
The portal notes that the introduction of genetically modified viruses is relatively new. The EMA, the European Medicines Agency, has already authorised an Ebola vaccine in 2019 based on the fact that its actual carrier is an attenuated and modified vesicular stomatitis virus.
The results
In Israel, 2/3 of the first clinical phase of the BriLife vaccine was completed on 16 November last year, involving 240 people. Experience has shown that antibody levels are high and do not lag behind mRNA vaccines.
Hungary is the first European country to participate in testing the efficacy and safety of the vaccine through phase 2b / 3 clinical trials.
Vaccines currently used in Hungary
Pfizer–BioNTech Moderna Sputnik V AstraZeneca Sinopharm
Out of those 5 vaccines, Sputnik V and Sinopharm are not recognised by the EU. Hungary has concluded a special agreement with the producer countries (Russia & China).
Some countries have already introduced plans to give the most vulnerable people a 4th dose of the Coronavirus vaccine. Now, Hungary’s health professionals are evaluating the severity of the pandemic situation: should we also introduce the 4th jab?
MTI shared the following on Saturday:
“Hungary’s health experts are assessing who should be administered a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine,” the leading infectologist of Budapest’s South Pest Central Hospital said on Saturday.
Janos Szlavik told public news channel M1 that countries that have started administering fourth jabs are recommending it to people older than 60, those with chronic health conditions, cancer patients, and immunocompromised people.
He said three vaccine doses were guaranteed to prevent hospitalisation or severe illness for those who contract the virus’s Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, defence ministry state secretary Szilard Nemeth told a press conference on Saturday that 52,000 jabs have been administered on Hungary’s mobile vaccination buses over the last ten months.
“Healthcare workers have inoculated 32,000 people in 136 more isolated locations across 16 counties on the vaccination buses so far,” he said.
Sóshartyán, 15 January 2022. A man is getting vaccinated with the 3rd dose of the Pfizer vaccine in a vaccination bus. Source: MTI/Komka Péter
Vaccination buses
These vaccination buses are highly effective in getting vaccines to those living in remote places. As Szilárd Németh shared it on his Facebook page, the Hungarian Defence Forces’ vaccination buses participate in the government’s vaccination programme.
On Saturday, the inhabitants of Sóshartyán and eight other villages in Nógrád County got a dose of the vaccine. At a press conference he held at the scene, Németh said that the Hungarian Defence Forces have five vaccination buses.
These vaccination buses have been in operation for ten months. Last year, on 27 March, they were put to work for the first time in the village of Nőtincs in Nógrád County.
4th jab?
Hungarian health experts are assessing the situation and soon deciding about who should get a 4th dose of the vaccine. As Telex reported, Viktor Orbán shared some details on Friday:
“We think that the third dose is a very strong immunity booster, we strongly recommend it to everyone. But if you feel that you need a dose and it’s been at least four months since the third one, you can get it. And after six months, we recommend that you do it.”
He added that it is important to always consult your own local GP first and only take the 4th dose if the doctor advises you to.
With this statement, Hungary is the first country to offer the 4th jab to everyone who wishes to get it.
Hungarians are significantly more satisfied with their government’s pandemic measures than other Europeans are with theirs, Századvég Foundation said on Friday, citing a survey based on interviews with 30,000 European residents.
The survey dubbed Századvég Europa Projekt 2021 covering 30 European countries showed that in a minority of countries, including Hungary, respondents said they were basically satisfied with vaccination and job-protection measures, while in the majority of countries people were generally discontented with government measures to soften the economic consequences of the pandemic.
Some 82 percent of European residents considered the coronavirus pandemic a cause for concern, and only 5 percent said concerns were exaggerated.
Top of the list were southern countries including Portugal (92 percent), Malta (90 percent) and Spain (89 percent), while the other end of the list included some central and eastern European countries such as Latvia (61 percent), Czech Republic (66 percent) and Slovenia (69 percent).
Hungary was near the middle, with 79 percent saying they were more or less concerned about coronavirus and 7 percent saying fears were exaggerated.
Hungary was in the top third of European countries in terms of public satisfaction with the vaccination drive. The country led the European list, with 44 percent of those saying they had maximum satisfaction with the vaccination drive, followed by the UK and Malta.
Some 47 percent of Europeans said they were dissatisfied with the government handling of economic consequences.
At the same time, 58 percent of Hungarians said they were basically satisfied with government measures to soften economic damage, and nearly a third said they were fully satisfied, which was the highest figure in Europe. At the same time, a relatively high proportion of 22 percent said they were not satisfied with the measures.
Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Karikó has been elected to the French Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate member and awarded the Lipid Science Prize of the Swedish Camurus Lipid Research Foundation.
Karikó, the vice president of BioNTech, which has led research on mRNA-based medicine since the 1990s, has played a major role in developing new vaccination strategies which have been used in the fight against Covid-19.
Karikó also received the Grande Medaille, the most prestigious award of the French Academie des Sciences, last autumn, the University of Szeged, Karikó’s alma mater, noted on Friday.
Foreign associate membership is awarded to scientists who contributed to the international prestige of the Academie, and the number of foreign associates is limited to 150.
The inauguration ceremony will take place on June 14 in Paris,
the university said.
The Camurus Lipid Research Foundation lauded Kariko as proof of scientific excellence going hand in hand with innovation and entrepreneurship. Karikó’s pioneering work has been the foundation of mRNA-based vaccines today, they said.
Minister Miklós Kásler shared much worse data before. He told Infórádió that, in the 4th wave, 9,485 people died out of 17 thousand patients receiving treatment in the Hungarian hospitals. That would mean 55 pc mortality, which is extremely high. It would mean that the Hungarian healthcare system is very ineffective.
Thus, portolio.hu asked for the data of the Semmelweis University. The institution said that they treated 6,456 people in in-patient and 8,173 people in outpatient care because of coronavirus between 2020 March and 2022 January. Based on their data, they lost 1,521 patients out of the 14,629.
That means a ten pc mortality rate at the university.
According to MTI, altogether 73 patients died of a Covid-related illness during the past 24 hours, while 8,921 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Friday. Fully 29 percent of new infections have been caused by the Omicron variant.
So far 6,304,323 people have received a first jab, while 6,050,416 have been fully vaccinated. Fully 3,321,659 Hungarians have received a booster jab. The number of active infections has risen to 128,268, while
hospitals are treating 2,611 Covid-19 patients, 243 of whom are intubated on a ventilator.
Since the first outbreak, 1,327,014 have been registered with the virus, while 40,237 deaths have been recorded. Fully 1,158,509 people have made a recovery.
Experts have proposed that the government support the promotion of a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine, which is now available for anyone after a consultation with their GP, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.
The fourth dose can be taken four months after the third, and it is highly recommended after six months, Orban said in an interview to public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió. The vaccine will be available on Fridays and Saturdays in January in hospitals and in major GP surgeries under a simplified system, with no need for an appointment, he said. GPs will also administer vaccines on weekends this month, he said.
Hungary’s public services and health-care system are prepared to inoculate all citizens,
Over 2 million Pfizer and 700,000 Moderna vaccines are at hand, he said.
Experts agree that Omicron is much weaker than previous variants of the virus, “but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t protect ourselves”, Orban said, calling on Hungarians to accept the next dose whatever their vaccination status. Meanwhile, the quarantine period will be cut to seven days, and it can be exited after five days in possession of a negative test, he said.
“Last year’s Christmas was almost the way one imagines it,” he said, with families coming together, albeit “under the shadow of the pandemic”. He praised Hungary’s “fantastic hospital capacities, especially in terms of human resources”. Currently, 2,611 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised and 243 are intubated on ventilators, with over 10,000 beds available, he said.
The prime minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said today that Hungary had a sufficient number of hospital beds, with only 25 percent of them occupied by Covid-19 patients. He added that 2,261 Covid patients and 596 patients whose Covid status was unconfirmed were currently hospitalised. Fully 8,546 beds in Hungarian hospitals are unoccupied, he said, adding that the capacity could be increased if necessary.
Concerning Omicron, Gulyás said the jab ensured protection against serious symptoms rather than the infection itself, adding that all vaccines licenced in Hungary were effective. Omicron, he added, accounted for a significant proportion of new infections, and warned that the number of new infections was “growing fast”, with the number of people becoming sick expected to grow significantly in the next few weeks. He added, however, that
Omicron caused less serious symptoms, and in other countries a higher number of infections had not resulted in a higher number of hospitalisations or deaths.
He said he hoped the situation in Hungary would follow that pattern.
Gulyás stressed that the primary protection against Covid was vaccination, adding that Hungary had a total 9.2 million doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Sinopharm vaccines. He welcomed the large number of shots administered during the recent vaccination campaign. Jabs without registration will continue in February on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, he said, adding that currently 64 percent of Hungarians were vaccinated,
“a good ratio in the region, though we are in the last third in European comparison.”
In response to a question, Gulyás said the government was being cautious when it came to shortening the quarantine period, adding that it had approved a “more conservative” proposal in the matter.
Asked about free Covid tests, he said the government had always prioritised vaccination over making testing free.
He also said the government will issue a decree this week on the option of a fourth Covid shot for those who ask for it after consultations with their doctor.
Asked about vaccination rates, he said there were geographical reasons behind the relatively low rate in central Europe compared with western Europe. The vaccination rate in Hungary, however, is still higher than in neighbouring countries, with the exception of Austria, he added.
