At the weekend, in general more people tend to violate the rules relating to restrictions on movement, the head of the duty centre of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic said at an online press conference held on Sunday.

Tibor Lakatos said in the past 24 hours, due to the violation of the rules relating to restrictions on movement the police have cautioned 1,286 persons,  imposed 496 onsite fines and prosecuted 425 persons.

Monitoring compliance with compulsory home quarantine orders, in the past 24 hours, the police have carried out 8,932 checks and have registered 30 irregularities, he said.

Mr Lakatos described traffic at border crossing stations as calm and balanced, stating that a delay of 30 minutes can only be expected in incoming passenger traffic at Hegyeshalom. He added that they are continuously checking Hungarian nationals returning to Hungary, as well as those passing through the country in transit traffic. Regarding the latter, the police have carried out 145,797 checks.

The number of persons in compulsory home quarantine has decreased – there are 11,959 orders in effect – and the number of returning Hungarian citizens is also on the decrease; in the past 24 hours, 761 persons have been required to retire to compulsory home quarantine, he said.

In answer to a question, Mr Lakatos said at the weekend the police are usually required to take action twice as many times as on weekdays, given that at the weekend people go out more and violate the rules. He added that they had compared this Saturday’s data with figures recorded the previous Saturday, and had concluded that in the past 24 hours fewer police actions had been required than a week earlier.

He made it clear that every Hungarian returning from abroad in passenger traffic must retire to compulsory home quarantine for 14 days; only cross-border commuters and truck drivers participating in international traffic are exceptions to this rule.

Mr Lakatos pointed out that, due to the upcoming final examinations, the government is planning to introduce special rules in relation to students who live abroad or are dual citizens, but will take their final examinations in Hungary and will travel here for that reason.

In answer to a question, he said from 12 March until Sunday, more than 930,000 persons had entered the country, including approximately 400,000 in cargo traffic. From among these, in 145,797 instances, Hungary was the destination.

He also said traffic is the busiest at the Hungarian-Slovak border crossing points; 200,000 of the total 930,000 entries have been made at this border section. He mentioned as an example that in the past 24 hours 799 Hungarian nationals and 3,209 foreign nationals had entered via this section. On the Croatian and Serbian border sections, this number is somewhere around 100. In addition to the Hungarian-Slovak border section, there is more significant border traffic at the Hungarian-Romanian section, he added.

He also mentioned that during the entry procedures conducted so far, the suspicion of coronavirus infection has emerged in one instance in the case of a Hungarian citizen who had to be taken to hospital.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)