The inoculate numbers are way too low for any restrictions to be eased, says chief medical officer

Eger, Hungary. Photo: MTI

The campaign to inoculate health-care workers against the coronavirus has almost been completed, while vaccinations have started in 80 of Hungary’s 1,900 social care facilities too, the chief medical officer said on Tuesday.

So far, Hungary has received enough of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to inoculate 165,000 people, and 149,676 have received the jab. Of them, 12,639 have been fully inoculated, Cecília Müller old an online press conference of the operative body responsible for the epidemic.

Those numbers are “way too low” for any restrictions to be eased, she said.

Cecília Müller called on health-care workers who have not yet asked for the jab to come forward.

The next stage will be the inoculation of the elderly, Müller said.

Fully 12,113 people have died of complications of the coronavirus since March, Müller noted.

Four percent of them had no known underlying conditions, she added.

The issue is further complicated by the emerging new variants of the virus, Müller said. While studies suggest that the variant detected in the United Kingdom in December can be neutralised with the available vaccines, there is no such information regarding the variants spreading in Africa and Brazil, she said.

Meanwhile, the virus samples in sewage water have declined in the Hungarian cities of Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Pécs, Székesfehérvár, Szolnok and Tatabánya, Müller said.

As we wrote today, it appears that a drug which mimics antibodies being developed in Hungary is effective in preventing serious complications arising from Covid-19, a scientist said, reporting on tests carried out on animals. Details HERE.