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Hungary begins coronavirus vaccine rollout early as Europe prepares final battle against virus

WION Web Team
HungaryUpdated: Dec 26, 2020, 11:22 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Reports said at least three health workers had received the first dose of the vaccine on Saturday morning.

As European nations begin preparations to vaccinate citizens against coronavirus on Sunday, Hungary took the lead on Saturday ahead of the EU's December 27 date.

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Hungary had received its shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday morning and it almost immediately began inoculating health workers with the first vaccinations carried out at Budapest's main coronavirus centre, the Del-Pest Central hospital.

Reports said at least three health workers had received the first dose of the vaccine on Saturday morning. Hungary has reported 315,362 coronavirus cases with 8,951 fatalities.

Hungary administered the first vaccine shot to doctor Adrienne Kertesz at the Del-Pest Central hospital. The country is set to get vaccine consignments in the coming weeks with mass rollout due to take place in the first half of 2021.

The country has been hard with the virus in the winter with 8,900 coronavirus-related deaths recorded by Saturday.

European nations with a total population of over 450 million will officially begin the vaccination campaign on Sunday, December 27 as announced by the EU as France, Germany, Italy and other nations begin their campaign to win against the virus.

"We'll get our freedom back, we'll be able to embrace again," Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said as he urged citizens to get the vaccine shot.

Most European nations are under partial lockdown amid Christmas and Boxing day even as Britain announced last week that it had detected a new coronavirus strain which had originated from South Africa.

The virus has led to the death of over 1.75 million people and infected over 80 million worldwide with the US being the worst-hit nation with the virus with over 330,340 deaths and over 18.7 million infected cases.