BUDAPEST, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine is becoming more and more recognized amongst professionals and civilians alike as the third wave of pandemic hit the country.
"I trust the Chinese vaccine," elderly Gabor Magyari told Xinhua on Friday, a few moments after having received the jab of the Sinopharm vaccine. "I don't care if the vaccine is Chinese or Russian or American. As long as it is good for my health, I am happy to get it."
Agnes Kissne Dudas, a middle-aged woman, told Xinhua that she "feels well after having been inoculated."
"I received the Chinese vaccine, it is what was available. The important thing is to get inoculated," she said.
These Hungarians expressed their opinions at the place of Csaba Denes, a family doctor who told Xinhua that the number of people to be inoculated on Friday almost twice as many as expected.
"The issue of trust is important. If the doctor says it is a good, reliable product, it means that people will be open to getting the shot," the doctor said. "Today, for instance, we will administer some 90 vaccines here, instead of the 45 we were expecting."
Amid the third wave of the pandemic, people's willingness to get vaccinated has increased a lot, said the doctor. "Because as the daily infections number are elevated, and more people get admitted to hospitals, to ICUs and ventilators, it has an effect on the willingness to get inoculated."
The Hungarian government is boosting its vaccination program with Russian and Chinese vaccines.
With access to vaccines from five producers, namely Sinopharm, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V, Hungary, the first European Union member state to buy and authorize the use of Chinese vaccines started to administer the Sinopharm vaccine on Feb. 24.
"The Sinopharm vaccine is unique among the vaccines authorized in Hungary, as this is the only inactivated vaccine which is using the whole virus with all the proteins of the coronavirus itself," Miklos Rusvai, a professor and virologist of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua.
"It is a very good and very effective immunization method, the use of the inactivated vaccines is very safe," said the expert, adding that safety is the number one expectation of the public.
"So I think that the inactivated vaccines are very safe and very potent. I think this vaccine will play a significant role in the fight against the epidemic." Rusvai added.
Hungary on Friday registered 6,369 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, raising the national total to 452,547, according to official data.
Meanwhile, 143 more people have died from the disease, taking the national death toll to 15,619 with 331,557 recoveries.
Currently, 6,867 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 677 on ventilators, figures from the government's coronavirus information website showed.
As of Friday, 862,953 people have received at least the first shot of a vaccine, while 279,727 have had two jabs, according to the website. Enditem
