Hungary's National Center for Public Health has allowed the use of Sputnik V, a Russian-produced vaccine against the new coronavirus.
Russia's TASS news agency reported this with reference to Hungarian Human Resources Minister Kásler Miklós' post on Facebook on February 7.
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In his words, the National Center for Public Health has completed official research on the Sputnik V vaccine, "which found that the vaccine meets the medication qualities declared by the producer and can be used in humans."
"Under the relevant authority's decision, another vaccine (Sputnik V) has been licensed for the use in Hungary in addition to coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca," he said on Facebook.
"Thus, we now have four vaccines available to fight against the coronavirus," he added.
Hungary in November 2020 became the EU's first country to receive samples of the Sputnik V vaccine for research. In January 2021, Hungary's National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition analyzed Sputnik V documents and preliminarily approved the vaccine. The final decision on the use of the Russian vaccine was to be made only by the National Center for Public Health.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine
- In August 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was the first in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. Putin also claimed that one of his daughters had been vaccinated with the vaccine.
- Moscow has not provided the international scientific community with any data on vaccine trials confirming that it is safe and effective against COVID-19. Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine had not been conducted prior to registration. Yet, the Russian side claims the effectiveness of the vaccine is 92%.
- On August 24, Putin agreed with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on testing of the Russian vaccine in Belarus, which will become the first country to receive that vaccine.
- Ukraine's Health Ministry has repeatedly stated that the vaccine had not passed the third phase of clinical trials, and therefore could not be used in Ukraine.
- In January 2021, Putin launched a mass vaccination campaign in Russia.
