As there is no vaccine against the coronavirus, the most we can do is slow down its spread, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister said on the public service television news channel M1 on Thursday.

Csaba Dömötör said the government’s restrictive measures are evidently working, have come up to expectations, but must be upheld also in the coming weeks.

He added that the government and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in person had consulted with police officers, health care experts and various authorities before extending the restrictions on movement on Thursday.

He stressed the main rule is that people can only leave their homes for essential reasons, such as going to work, shopping for food or medicines, and using healthcare services.

It is also clear, he added, that this Easter will be completely different from Easters in the past, and will require a great many sacrifices. These are, however, necessary so that people can celebrate next Easter the way they did in the past. This, too, indicates, he pointed out that the restrictions are primarily about protecting people.

He recalled that the Prime Minister had also announced that mayors had been given the authority to adopt stringent measures if they believed them to be necessary. He added that on Thursday many mayors whose settlements were popular tourist destinations had adopted such measures: they closed down parking lots or published appeals in which they warned members of the public, asking them to comply with the rules of social distancing.

“We are observing signs of quarantine fatigue, if I may put it that way; we’ve been through very difficult weeks, it’s very hard to observe these rules, practically for everyone, including those who live alone and those who live in large families,” he said, adding that there may be many who have observed the provisions so far, but will not do so this weekend.

Mr Dömötör asked everyone to stay at home as if people are not disciplined at this time, we could lose everything we have gained with the timely measures.

Regarding the measures implemented by the government, he said the Operational Group had been set up at an early stage, and compared with other countries such as Italy or Austria, restrictive measures had been adopted sooner after the identification of the first patient. It is also thanks to this that we have managed to slow down the spread of the epidemic, but this does not at all mean that we can now relax, Mr Dömötör said.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)