In EU first, China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines arrive in Hungary

The vaccines, enough to protect 275,000 people against Covid-19, were flown in aboard a Hungarian government plane from Beijing

The government announced late last month that it had ordered a total of 5 million Sinopharm doses

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Workers in Hungary unload cargo from a plane that transported the first doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on February 16. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:23pm, 16 Feb 2021Updated: 11:26pm, 16 Feb 2021

Hungary on Tuesday became the first EU country to receive China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine as an initial batch of 550,000 doses arrived in Budapest, the government announced.

The vaccines – enough to protect 275,000 people against Covid-19 – were flown in aboard a Hungarian government plane which had left for Beijing on Monday and returned home at midday on Tuesday.

“This is an important day for Hungary,” Tamas Menczer, secretary of state for foreign affairs in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office, said at the airport. “We are trying to save lives and maintain the economy.”

Orban’s government announced late last month that it had ordered a total of 5 million Sinopharm doses.

Workers unload a shipment of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine as it arrives at Budapest Airport on February 16,. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM) via Reuters

Hungary’s pharmaceutical authority has approved the vaccine, but it cannot be administered until it receives the green light from the National Centre for Public Health (NNK), which has said it still needs to conduct tests.

In another first for the European Union, Hungary has already been administering the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine – named after the Soviet-era satellite – which has been found to be 91.6 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 cases.

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