First shipment of Chinese vaccine departs Beijing for Hungary

The first shipment of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine developed in China left Beijing for Budapest on Tuesday.Hungary is the first country in the European Union to approve the Chinese jab.

The first shipment, which contains 550,000 doses of the vaccine developed by the Chinese state-owned company is enough to treat 275,000 people with two doses each.After arrival, the first shipment will undergo additional testing by the National Public Health Center before inoculations begins.

Hungary earlier broke with the EU's common vaccine procurement program by approving the vaccine on Jan. 29, and has purchased 5 million doses.The country's government has been critical of the European Union's sluggish vaccine rollout, and in recent months has sought vaccines from countries outside the bloc's common procurement program.

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said he would choose to take the Sinopharm jab himself.The vaccine's developer says it is nearly 80% effective, but has not yet released stage 3 clinical trial data.

Around 30 million people worldwide have received the Sinopharm vaccine, including half a million ethnic Hungarians in Serbia, Hungary's non-EU neighbor to the south.