Hungary sets 2.5mn jabs as criteria for lifting restrictions

Hungary sets 2.5mn jabs as criteria for lifting restrictions
Hungary is facing the most severe days of the third wave with record caseloads and deaths.
By bne IntelliNews March 29, 2021

The first stage of easing coronavirus restrictions can begin once 2.5mn people have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to a government decree issued on March 27.

The decree stipulates that the overnight curfew will then be shortened to between 10pm and 5am. Also, shops will have to set a limit of one customer per 10 sqm, except in the cases of children under the age of 14, people over the age of 65 and those assisting someone with a disability.

Shops will have to ensure that those waiting to be let in can keep a safe distance of 1.5 metres from each other, except for those living in the same household. Customers must also have access to hand sanitation, and shopping carts and trolleys must be disinfected on a regular basis.

Cabinet chief of staff Gergely Gulyas confirmed that schools will reopen on April 19 and that vaccinations for teachers will take place in the first days of April.

Hungary is facing "the most severe days" of the third wave with record caseloads and a high number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, Hungary’s leading epidemiologist Janos Szlavik said. Experts have warned people to observe the regulations during the Easter holiday.

Hungary reported a record 272 daily deaths on March 28, bringing the total death count to close to 20,000. Over the last seven days, Hungary had the highest mortality rate per 1mn inhabitants globally. There are close to 12,000 in hospitals due to COVID-19. 

The most important thing is to contain further transmissions of the virus and to ease the burden on the country’s health-care system, the head of the epidemiology department of the National Public Health Centre (NNK), Gyula Kincses, told state media.

The Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK) has warned against lifting restrictions. A short but strict lockdown is much more effective than one that is more lenient and drawn out, said Kincses. Relations between the government and MOK have been sour as Kincses served as state secretary of the lefist-liberal Gyurcsany government before 2010. Head of the Democratic Coalition Ferenc Gyurcsany is the main nemesis of the ruling Fidesz party.

On a positive note, the pace of vaccination is advancing rapidly. More than 1.9mn people received their first jab and 685,000 have been fully vaccinated. Hungary has now overtaken Malta as the country with the highest rate of inoculation.

This rate could further improve as Hungary granted licenses for use to the Chinese CanSino coronavirus vaccine and CoviShield, AstraZeneca’s vaccine produced in India.

Hungary is to receive some 8mn vaccines under the EU’s joint procurement scheme in Q2, local media reported after the EU summit on Thursday. Pfizer alone will ship some 4.5mn doses in the April-June period. These details were unveiled by liberal opposition party Momentum as Prime Minister Viktor Orban failed to make this information public.

 

 

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