Sharjah24 – AFP: Hungary will allow restaurants to reopen their outdoor terraces from Saturday as more than a third of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday.
"Now 3.5 million have been vaccinated, so from Saturday morning catering premises can open their outdoor areas," Orban said during his weekly radio address.
Orban added other services, such as hotels, theatres, cinemas, gyms, public baths, libraries and indoor dining, would be allowed to reopen once four million people have received at least one shot of vaccine -- expected by the middle of next week.
People will have to show a proof of immunity, he added. Restaurants and other services have been closed since November.
The central European country of 9.8 million people has carried out one of the fastest coronavirus vaccine rollouts in the EU thanks to its use of the Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik V jabs.
Neither vaccine has been approved for use by the 27-nation bloc's drug regulator EMA, although the agency has launched a rolling review of Sputnik V.
Hungary has been one of the hardest hit EU member states, with one of the highest Covid-19 death tolls in the world.
The government submitted a bill to parliament Tuesday that would extend its existing state of emergency powers to rule by decree until at least September.
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