Local governments have been given the authority also for this weekend to decide on issues related to the use of public areas within their own competence due to the coronavirus epidemic, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister said on Friday on the public service television news channel M1.

Csaba Dömötör recalled that from Saturday the government would extend the restrictions on movement. Similar to last weekend, also this Saturday and Sunday local governments will be free to tighten the existing restrictions as this method appeared to work well during the Easter holiday, given that it managed to prevent masses of people from going on trips to the countryside, the State Secretary said.

He highlighted that the goal of the government is to flatten the curve of the epidemic because without a vaccine this is the only way to prevent an overload on the health care system. The restrictive measures implemented to date have worked; we have managed to curb the epidemic.

Regarding the final examinations, Mr Dömötör said there will only be written examinations, with maximum ten students in each room, keeping a distance of one and a half metres between them. More than 80,000 students will take part in the written examinations; those who do not wish to continue their studies in higher education could take their final examinations later, he added.

The State Secretary also said as the Hungarian economy has had strong years in the past few years, the crisis does not mean that austerity measures need to be introduced. The government is working to provide maximum support for the sectors now in trouble, and to create at least as many jobs as will be destroyed by the epidemic, he stressed.

Among the economic measures that serve this goal, he mentioned that from July the social contribution tax will decrease by two percentage points for every employer, the VAT on new homes in brownfield belt areas will decrease to five per cent, and the maximum amount that can be deposited on employee ‘SZÉP’ (recreational benefits) cards will increase.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)