Hungary draws up war plan to tackle pandemic without need for lockdowns
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The Hungarian Government has drawn up a “war plan” that will allow the country to tackle a new wave of coronavirus pandemic without a wide-ranging lockdown, its prime minister, Viktor Orban, has announced today.
Orban said on the country’s national radio broadcaster that Hungary’s healthcare facilities had been strengthened and prepared for the country to keep functioning without the need of wide-ranging lockdowns.
The Prime Minister said that “during the first wave, all we could say was that everyone should stay at home and meanwhile we’ll get the health system ready. Now the task is not for everyone to stay at home but, on the contrary, for everyone to keep living on their lives.”
He added that the country has to function, but it has to function while at the same time it protects itself against the virus in a disciplined manner and following the rules.
Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have all reported record number of new cases this week.
Hungary announced 941 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, for a total of 16,111 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 669 deaths.
Of the infected, 374 people were being treated in hospital and 29 were on ventilators.
Over the last several days, Hungary has extended the mandatory wearing of masks — already necessary on public transportation and shops — to theatres, cinemas, health care and social institutions, among others. People not wearing masks or wearing them incorrectly can be fined.
