New vaccination certificate rules to be unveiled within days in Hungary
The cabinet has announced a new vaccination campaign for January where Hungarians may, after on-site registration, ask for their first, second or third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The shots will be administered at vaccination locations between 2 and 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
István György said Hungarians may get their shots at 101 hospitals and 115 specialist clinics, adding that GPs also do administer doses.
He said more than 135,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered over three days on the first weekend of the vaccination campaign and 142,000 on the second weekend. He added it was encouraging that almost 20,000 people had taken their first jab.
Encouraging? Well... it depends. Considering that the 7-day average of 1st shots administered is less than 3,800, it may be labelled as encouraging. In any other aspect it is a dreadfully low figure.
Also note that the figures György shared are for four days (Thursday to Sunday) rather than only for the three days in the 'vaccination campaign'. If we add the shots administered from Thursday to Saturday, we find that slightly more than 101,000 jabs were given. But let's be generous here and count all the doses that were administered from Thursday to Sunday.
The government has recently decided that the immunity certificate will be renamed vaccination certificate and it will be valid only with three doses or if the 2nd dose was administered not more than six months earlier.
information about the vaccination certificate will be published in a few days,
he said.
The consensus of medical science is that over time, the body's immunity level decreases, while it increases to around 90% with the third dose, he said. "We should not rely on the assumption that immunity gained by infection is sufficient," he warned. According to medical protocol, those who have been infected and have not yet received their vaccine are advised to "get vaccinated immediately after recovery," he added.
He also said the government had addressed the issue of a fourth (second booster) dose. A fourth shot will be available for
- the elderly,
- the chronically ill,
- people on immunosuppressive treatment and transplant recipients,
- and in the disease groups listed by the Ministry of Human Capacities.
György also said that children aged 5 to 11 received about 67,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Although he has not mentioned it, it is good to know that this covers slightly more than 10% of the age group. He stressed vaccine shipments continue to arrive in Hungary, and even now there are enough doses to inoculate more than 50,000 children.
Cover photo: Getty Images
