Mr Babis, who announced his visit on Twitter in person on Wednesday, will be received by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The fight against the coronavirus pandemic, with special regard to the ongoing vaccination campaign, will be the main topic of the bilateral talks. The Czechs are particularly interested in Hungary’s experiences in connection with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the medicine Bamlanivimab which Hungary procured from the United States and of which the Czech Republic has also ordered supplies, Prague sources stated.
According to the information of the news portal Lidovky.cz, the Czech Prime Minister will be accompanied on his visit to Budapest by a group of disease control experts, including former Health Minister Roman Prymula, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor for disease control. As reported by the news portal, the Czech and Hungarian experts will consult in three task forces with respect to the process of vaccination, the recognition of vaccines and the treatment of the disease caused by Covid-19 infection.
In the Czech Republic at present, only the vaccines approved in the European Union are being used. However, in expert circles and in the media, opinions asserting that other vaccines should also be tested and procured are becoming ever more emphatic. On Tuesday, Mr Babis announced that the Czech Republic had already ordered the drug called Bamlanivimab – which experts have found to be very effective – from the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
Roman Prymula stated several times that Prague should also consider procuring the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.