Vaccinations against the coronavirus have begun in Hungarian nursing homes, starting with the four largest residential institutions in the country, the National television channel M1 reported on Thursday afternoon. On Thursday morning, the vaccines also arrived at the retirement home on Pesti út in the capital, which was one of the biggest focal points of the pandemic in the spring.
An M1 correspondent said that 479 residents and staff at the institution will be vaccinated on Thursday. Botond Sára, government commissioner in charge of the Metropolitan Government Office, also recalled that more than 300 people had to be taken from the home to the hospital in the spring, and 55 died of the infection.
Vaccination of the affected persons was started at three vaccination points there. A total of about a 1,000 people applied for the vaccine in the two largest institutions in the capital, the government commissioner said, stressing that the vaccine is the only one that could end the epidemic. At the same location, Erzsébet Gy Németh, deputy mayor for humanitarian affairs and vice-president of the DK political party, called it important that the vaccination was launched. However, she also emphasized that the institution had been notified of the vaccination very late, at noon on Wednesday, meaning that they had less than 24 hours to prepare. Nevertheless, 70 percent of residents and workers were convinced that vaccination is in their best interest, he said.
The deputy mayor added that at the same time, she would consider it important to notify the institutions about the vaccination earlier the next time. About 400 residents and about 75 percent of the employees of the Bánkút Street building in the capital’s Olive Branch home decided to receive the first round of the vaccination. Viktor Szirmai, the director general of the institution, spoke to M1 about the fact that with the restrictions and joint responsibility, the elderly have been protected from infection so far.
At the same time, he emphasized that only vaccination will provide real security. At the same time, he added, strict security measures will continue to be maintained in the home. Data reconciliation and completion of the consent statement will be followed by a medical examination and, if all is well, the vaccine will be administered, followed by a half-hour observation. Vaccination also began in two social institutions outside the capital on Thursday. In Pécs, more than 70 workers and 23 elderly residents are vaccinated in the home of the Baptist Aid Service. The correspondent at the Autumn Sunshine Home in Miskolc said that the employees of the northeastern Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Central Hospital are administering the vaccination there. In that nursing home, a third of both residents and workers have already contracted the infection.
Now, 27 workers and 101 residents have applied for the vaccine. The correspondent also said that most of the residents there are immobile, unable to care of themselves, which means they need to be vaccinated in their room. In addition, vaccination of health workers is still continuing in Hungary. According to the latest data , Hungary, with a population of just under 10 million, so far had 334,836 coronavirus cases and 10,325 casualties. Title image: Nurse Enikő Beáta Nagy-Billa administers the coronavirus vaccine to Zoltán Kopasz at the “Autumn Sunshine” home for the elderly in Miskolc, eastern Hungary on Jnaury 7, 2021. (MTI/János Vajda)
