Heightened restrictions, extended border closure in Hungary!

Starting next week, police will have the authority to close restaurants and shops and recommend the cancellation of sporting and cultural events, he said. PM Orbán underscored the importance of wearing face masks, saying that those who refused to comply with the rule were putting other people’s health at risk.

Hungary’s coronavirus curve is rising, Orbán said, adding that the daily new case and fatality trends were set to remain adverse.

Orbán added, at the same time, that public discipline regarding the restrictions was satisfactory in comparison with other countries. “But the situation is going to get more serious; we need more,” he said.

Moreover, the government has again extended the previously ordered border closure; the extension means another 1 month and lasts until December 1, according to the decree. The border closure would have originally expired on November 1st.

Concerning Thursday’s extraordinary video conference of the European Council, Orbán said the situation regarding Covid-19 was “far worse” in many western European countries than in Hungary.

In the video conference, EU leaders discussed the need for coordination in the handling of the pandemic through information sharing and the establishment of uniform border regulations, Orbán said. “The latter isn’t really working so far because some countries are more lenient while Hungary is stricter,” he said, adding that Hungary was also hesitant to accept Covid tests carried out in other countries.

As regards the question of implementing tougher restrictions, the prime minister said some countries had implemented “extremely tight” restrictions but were not seeing any improvement in their case numbers.

“So we should just establish some rules and follow them,” he said. “To me, the key is in complying with the existing rules rather than establishing new ones.”

Orbán said Hungary’s health-care system was capable of bearing the burdens caused by the epidemic. “We have enough hospital beds, medicine, ventilators, doctors and nurses even if they have to be transferred,” he said. Hungary has the third largest reserve of hospital beds in Europe after Germany and Austria and the largest reserve of ventilators, he said.

The prime minister said Hungary had originally ordered 1.4 million doses of the flu vaccine but had recently put in an order for another 360,000.

Source: MTI