21/12/2021 (Agence Europe) – Hungary has decided to rejoin the European Union’s Covid-19 vaccine procurement process “to shield its population from the Omicron variant”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday 21 December, as quoted by the Reuters news agency. Hungary will order 9.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty), the agency said. A new agreement was reached this weekend between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical company to accelerate deliveries of Comirnaty in the EU (see EUROPE 12857/10). It is expected that 215 million doses will reach Europeans in the first quarter of 2022. At this stage, Hungary has vaccinated 60% of its adult population. An estimated 31.2% of the over 18 have also already received a booster dose. (AC)