The first shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, enough to inoculate 20,000 people, has arrived in Hungary, the chief medical officer said.

After fewer-than-expected vaccines arrived on Sunday, this week’s vaccination plan had to be revised, the national chief medical officer said at an online press conference on Monday by the operative board responsible for controlling the coronavirus epidemic.

The operative board is urging the public to continue to adhere to the protection measures in place, a spokesman for the National Police Headquarters said at an online press conference on Monday by the operative board responsible for controlling the coronavirus epidemic.

Having as many as five Covid-19 vaccines approved by Hungary’s drug authority is an advantage in the fight against the disease, Béla Merkely, the rector of Budapest’s medical Semmelweis University, has said.

Fully 54 Covid patients, generally elderly and suffering from an underlying illness, died over the past 24 hours, while 1,124 new infections were officially registered, bringing the total number of infected to 368,710, koronavirus.gov.hu said.

Some 300 people on Monday held a demonstration in central Budapest with the demand that restaurants, bars and hotels be allowed to reopen.

It was revealed that bodyguards are protecting National Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller.

The spread of coronavirus infections in Hungary appears to be steady and the number of daily deaths is also stabilising, indicating that the epidemic is plateauing, a senior infectologist of the Budapest South Pest Hospital has said.

Hungary has contracted five million doses of the coronavirus vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinopharm, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said.