The same as earlier, the goal of the tightened measures entering into effect on Tuesday due to the coronavirus epidemic is to protect the Hungarian people’s health and safety, the Minister of State for International Communication and Relations stated at a press conference held on Monday in Budapest.

Zoltán Kovács said the government is driven by the desire to adopt the necessary measures in a timely manner, based on the experiences of the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic and international experiences.

He added that in the interest of facilitating information flow, they have prepared a mobile telephone application for the website koronavirus.gov.hu which will be available to be downloaded shortly.

László Balázs, Head of the Border Policing Division of the National Police Constabulary stressed that from 00.00 hours on Tuesday, they would monitor traffic at 67 border crossing stations. They will carry out the necessary tasks together with the defence forces and the National Ambulance Service.

They will seek to make every effort to enable passengers to cross the borders as swiftly as possible, while in the interest of preserving the economy’s performance, the movement of goods will remain obstacle-free, he added.

According to the rule of thumb, only Hungarian nationals will be allowed to enter the territory of Hungary; however, they, too, will be required to retire to quarantine for two weeks.

Persons can be released from quarantine on the basis of two negative test results, with minimum 48 hours between the two tests carried out not more than five days previously. It is a change, however, compared with the earlier protocol that Covid-tests performed abroad will not be accepted.

According to his information, if non-Hungarian nationals wish to enter Hungary, they can submit applications on grounds deserving special consideration by using the police.hu website. These will be assessed by the border policing unit or police constabulary with competence in relation to the border crossing stations which applicants intend to use.

He also said non-Hungarian nationals will be allowed to travel through Hungary in transit traffic; however, they will only be permitted to use designated transit routes.

Those living within 30 kilometres of the border and returning home within 24 hours will also be exempt from the quarantine regulations, provided that they do not travel beyond 30 kilometres of the border in the neighbouring country, the Colonel listed.

Tibor Lakatos, head of the duty centre of the Operational Group, stressed that the police would only conduct controls and provide information about the quarantine regulations at border crossing stations. Exemption from quarantine can be granted by the disease control authority after the presentation of two negative test results.

He added that the violation of the protective measures will continue to qualify as infringements, including cases where persons are not prepared to subject themselves to medical screening during the process of crossing the border.

He took the view that the measures implemented in education appear to be sufficient for the time being. At the same time, they are prepared for the eventuality that, in the case of isolated infections – rather than closing down whole institutions – they will be able to isolate smaller communities.

At the press conference, Máté Kiss-György, representative of Asura Zrt., the company that developed the application serving to monitor compliance with the home quarantine regulations, encouraged everyone to choose the option of remote monitoring in order to spare precious police human resources.

According to his information, in the spring they carried out more than 35,000 remote checks with the aid of the application which saves the police not only many man hours and a great deal of mileage, but also helps the work of the health care authorities.

He reassured everyone that via the application the authority only manages data which is already in the possession of the state.

Meaning that the application is safe similar to the use of the Client Portal, the developer said.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)