V4 presidents appeal to people to get vaccinated

The presidents of the Visegrad Group countries (V4) have issued a statement calling on their citizens to get vaccinated.

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, on Monday met his counterparts from the Visegrad Group countries, Slovakia and Hungary, in Budapest. Czech President Milos Zeman was not attending due to health issues.

After the meeting, Duda said they had discussed the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and the three presidents agreed to issue a joint statement encouraging their citizens to get vaccinated.

"The epidemic situation in our region is serious, and the new variant of the coronavirus may worsen it, which is why we urge everyone to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible," the statement read.

Duda said the appeal was made out of concern about the lives and health of fellow citizens, but also about the normal functioning of societies and economies.

"In Poland, over 90 percent of people hospitalised due to... (Covid) infection, are people who have not been vaccinated... and those who have been vaccinated are there for comorbidities, and other vaccinated people have only mild symptoms," Duda said.

Zuzana Caputova, the Slovak president, said in Budapest that all the presidents of V4 countries believe that "the vaccine is the best and the only strategy to stop the further development of this disease."