The Hungarian vaccination rate overtook that of the United States and currently the country is fourth in the world, news and opinion portal Mandiner writes.
Within the European Union, the speed of vaccinations in Hungary has been accelerated for a month. In May, the country led the European ranking together with Malta. On Sunday, Hungary also reached the top of the world rankings: ahead of Chile, it is now fourth in the world rankings after Israel, Bahrain and the United Kingdom.
Cabinet minister Gergely Gulyás said earlier that the third wave of the epidemic had hit Hungary hard, but the number of new infections and deaths had fallen dramatically as a result of the vaccinations. He added that the more people vaccinate themselves, the faster the epidemic can be pushed back.
Vaccination rates allows for gradual reopening
The number of people vaccinated was 4,690,000 on Monday, with the government forecasting the rate could reach the 6 million mark after Pentecost.
Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller added that inoculations are ongoing at every vaccination point, and there is now an abundance of vaccines. She said it is up to the individual to make use of the vaccine. She said that while AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines are now only available in limited numbers, the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine is available at vaccination points. Additional shipments of Pfizer are expected and 38,400 J&J vaccines arrived on Monday.
The chief medical officer stressed that the epidemiological data is developing favorably, and Hungary is nearing the end of the descending phase of the third wave thanks to protection measures and vaccinations.
According to the latest May 16 data, the inoculation rate in Hungary stands at 47.09 percent, second only in the European Union to Malta (55.04 percent) and well ahead of Finland (38.1 percent) and Germany (36.5 percent). The EU average is 31.08 percent.
