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BUDAPEST, March 22 (Reuters) - Hungary is the first European
Union (EU) country to approve for emergency use China's CanSino
Biologics coronavirus vaccine and CoviShield, the
Indian version of the AstraZeneca shot, the Hungarian
surgeon general said on Monday.
New infections are surging in Hungary in a third wave of the
pandemic, even as vaccine import and usage rates are among the
highest in the EU with the country using Chinese and Russian
vaccines as well as Western ones.
If both new vaccines are also approved for mass use by the
National Health Centre, Hungary will have seven sources to
procure vaccines from. It was unclear when and in what quantity
Hungary planned to deploy the newly authorised vaccines, or how
it planned to buy them.
"We are in a race against time," Surgeon General Cecilia
Muller told a news briefing. "We will overturn the four corners
of the world for as many doses of proper efficient and safe
vaccines as possible."
Hospitalisation rates are at record levels, and even as
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday said the health system
would cope, some hospitals are so overwhelmed by the influx of
patients that they are asking untrained volunteers to help.
The spreading third wave presents a big challenge for Orban,
who said tough lockdown measures could start to ease once the
vaccination figure reached 2.5 million people, or a quarter of
the population.
Orban faces elections in 2022.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves and Marton Dunai; Editing by Alison
Williams and Ed Osmond)