Foreign Desk Report
BUDAPEST: Hungary’s government said on Thursday it has reached a deal with China’s Sinopharm to buy its coronavirus vaccine, the country’s latest move to break away from Brussels as it tries to speed up inoculations to lift curbs on the economy.
Hungary would be the first EU country to accept a Chinese vaccine if approved by Hungarian authorities.
Under European Union rules it would have to give an ultra-fast emergency use approval, rather than waiting for the European drug regulator EMA to give the go-ahead for the Chinese vaccine. Britain took a similar approach in December before it exited the bloc.
It approved Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 2, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin a mass inoculation programme.
Hungary’s nationalist government has sharply criticised the EU for what it said were way too slow vaccine purchases and deliveries that now threatened an economic rebound.
