Restrictions on movement are being imposed in relation to the entire territory of the country for the period between 28 March and 11 April. For two weeks, citizens will only be allowed to leave their homes and places of residence for the purpose of going to work or meeting other essential needs, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Friday on Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’.
“The Ministry for Innovation and Technology has called on the heads of higher education institutions to maintain measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus epidemic and protecting people’s health within the framework of a rectoral decree, despite the expiry of the previously ordered state of emergency. Students at universities and colleges will continue to be taught via distance teaching next week”, the Ministry said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday.
The decree on restrictions on movement announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday morning has been published in Magyar Közlöny [Hungarian Gazette].
As we all face the most serious pandemic in a century, when governments everywhere are battling an unknown enemy and doing our best to protect the population against the spread of the virus and to save lives – I guess I hoped that this time we’d see a little more solidarity, Zoltán Kovács stressed.
“In addition to eighty thousand small enterprises and sixty thousand families with small children, the government’s economic protection measures are also making life easier for thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of debtors”, the Ministry of Finance’s Parliamentary State Secretary András Tállai said in a statement published in Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet on Friday.
“We must count on a long struggle against the coronavirus and must protect ourselves within several fields”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post published early on Friday morning. “In the interests of procuring protective healthcare equipment, Hungary has turned to the Turkic Council, and we have already received assistance from two countries: Turkey and Uzbekistan”, the Minister stated.
“Forty-three Hungarian citizens have been brought home from Israel because of the coronavirus pandemic”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday.
“The unrestricted movement of goods and citizens wanting to return home must also be assured within the European Union during the crisis being caused by the coronavirus pandemic”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó warned in Sofia on Thursday following talks with his Bulgarian counterpart.
Health care workers are in the front line on the battlefield, and we must take good care of them, Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller said at the Thursday online press conference of the duty centre of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the virus.
Compared with neighbouring countries, Hungary has succeeded in slowing down the spread of the virus, the head of the duty centre of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus infection said at an online press conference held on Thursday.