The Operational Group’s duty centre has proceeded in 14,000 cases since the establishment of the unit on 5 February, 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 Wednesday.

Tibor Lakatos stressed that in the interest of conquering the coronavirus epidemic, they have continuously analysed the data related to the epidemic. Among others, they aggregated contact tracing records, and registered the persons in compulsory home quarantine, the number of infected health care and defence workers, as well as the quantity of available ventilators and personal protective equipment.

At the toll-free number of the duty centre, 18,765 calls were received, they responded to 64,674 e-mail messages from members of the public, and appeared before the press more than a hundred times, the police Colonel added. He took stock of the duty centre’s responsibilities on the occasion of the fact that the regular press conferences of the Operational Group are coming to an end.

He recalled that with the introduction of the special legal order, the government made it possible for the police to assist the activities of the health authorities in the interest of preventing and containing diseases related to the coronavirus epidemic.

In connection with the 4,078 confirmed coronavirus patients, they have traced 3,647 contact persons; the highest number of searches were conducted by the police in Budapest and Pest County.

Thanks to a donation, the duty centre operated a graphic IT system in which they registered the details and geographical coordinates of more than 60,000 persons in compulsory home quarantine, and from these they were able to draw conclusions relating to the spread of the epidemic.

He also mentioned that the duty centre had kept records of inventories of personal protective equipment, the occupancy rates of hospitals, patients requiring assisted ventilation and donations received by the Operational Group during the epidemic. Up to 16 June, 385 donations were received, including mostly protective equipment and services. They forwarded these donations to the State Centre for Health Care Supplies and the volunteer task force, he said.

Mr Lakatos added he sincerely hopes that the effective cooperation of staff members of the duty centre contributed to the effectiveness of the containment effort.

Police Lt. Colonel Róbert Kiss, a staff member of the duty centre, said from Wednesday persons in passenger traffic are allowed to enter Hungary from Romania without restrictions.

He also mentioned that an EU website was now available regarding the lifting of travel restrictions. On this website there is up-to-the-minute information on the lifting of restrictions and quarantine requirements. The website is available in all languages of the EU, he added.

He said due to the violation of the rules relating to the shopping hours reserved for the over 65s, so far the police have cautioned 85 persons, have imposed onsite fines in 73 instances and have prosecuted 111 persons. Due to the violation of the rules related to the restrictions on movement, 26,756 persons have been cautioned, 13,146 onsite fines have been imposed and 11,504 persons have been prosecuted.

Since 12 March, the police have checked compliance with the rules of compulsory home quarantine in 648,981 instances, experiencing violations in 0.44 per cent of cases, Mr Kiss said.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)