The first shipment of the Russian coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Hungary. The 40,000 doses were enough to inoculate 20,000 people. Hungary has approved five COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinopharm.

The 100th birth anniversary of Hungarian piano virtuoso Gyorgy Cziffra will be marked in 15 countries worldwide in 2021 – the leader of the Hungarian celebrations, pianist Janos Balazs, said on public news channel M1.  Source: YouTube

92,233 children were born in Hungary in 2020, 3,040 more than in the year before. – We are proud to say that in the last ten years, among all the member states of the European Union, the desire to have children has increased the most in Hungary – minister Katalin Novák said, quoted by the Magyar Hírlap daily. 

– If in the coming decades, in the upcoming elections, we do not maintain national governments in Central Europe, I do not exclude that by the time our children grow up to our age, Europe will already be the fourth empire, where it does not matter that there are member states, national cultures – warns the chairman of the Hungarian National Assembly, László Kövér in an interview with Robert Zawadzki, published in the "Do Rzeczy" weekly.

South Korea's SK Innovation will build a USD 2.29 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Hungary, its third in the Hungary – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference.                     The company will invest USD 2.29 billion by 2028 in an area measuring 700,000 m2, which is equivalent to 98 football stadiums.

Hungary Pharmaceuticals and Food Institute approved the use of the vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinopharm against COVID-19. Thus, Hungary became the first European Union country to approve the Chinese vaccine. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote on his Facebook page that he had signed an agreement to purchase the vaccine, enough to inoculate 2.5 million people, after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday. 

Hungary has established a committee to assess the feasibility of staging the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Budapest. Hungary has never hosted the Games before. ​

“Allowing hundreds of thousand non-vaccinated people to enter Europe would give a fresh impetus to the pandemic” – Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, told MTI after his visit to Warsaw.   ​

– Measures imposed in November to curb the coronavirus pandemic will remain in place in Hungary until March 1 to prevent the third wave – Gergely Gulyas, the minister heading the Prime Minister's Office said. ​

Miklós Kásler said on Facebook that Hungary will be the first European country that can use bamlanivimab, developed by US drugmaker Eli Lilly. ​ PHOTO CREDIT: RICCARDO ANTIMIANI / ANSA / PAP/EPA (jap)

The monthly minimum wage in Hungary for unskilled workers will rise from 161,000 forints to 167,400 (before tax), while skilled workers will receive 219,000 forints (up from 210,600).  ​

The International Monetary Fund upheld its forecast of Poland's economic growth this year, and an expectation that Polish GDP will grow by a 5.1 percent in 2022. ​