BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2021) Hungary has informed the European Commission that it will opt out of the bloc-wide deal to purchase additional doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for 2022-2023, commissioner for health and food safety Stella Kyriakides said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the commission announced it had struck a third deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to reserve an extra 1.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 drug. The deal enables the bloc to purchase "900 million doses of the current vaccine and of a vaccine adapted to variants, with the option to purchase an additional 900 million doses."
"Only Hungary has requested that it will opt out and they will not be covered by the contract. All other member states will have an opportunity to purchase vaccines under the new contract," Kyriakides said.
Hungary became the first EU country to roll out the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V after complaining about the slow pace of the European Union's vaccine procurement scheme.
