From 1 October, the government has extended the border closure by another month, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said at a press conference held on Thursday in Budapest.
Gergely Gulyás stressed that members of the public are required to continue to observe the rules adopted so far. He said wearing face masks is key. He added that body temperature checking in schools had started, the visiting bans were being maintained in hospitals and elderly care homes, and the vaccine against the flu would be made available shortly.
The Minister said in conclusion that “the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic is here with us,†the drastic rise in the number of infections experienced at the beginning of September has stopped in Hungary, and numbers have stagnated for some time now between 600 and 1,000.
He added that looking at the numbers in Europe, Hungary is in the middle ranks in terms of number of infections, and continues to remain among the best in Europe as regards the number of fatalities. He said every human life must be protected with any means necessary, and the required conditions and hospital capacities are available.
Mr Gulyás said the reproduction rate of the virus – meaning the number of persons infected by an infected person – must be around one. He observed that according to the latest data, this rate is around one now. He said the goal of the government – which is also confirmed by the national consultation and the latest economic data – is to ensure that the country continue to remain up and running.
He said employment is again above 4.5 million, and the latest data only falls 20,000 short of the highest employment figure ever recorded. In our view, this is the greatest achievement of the fight against the virus in the field of the economy, he stressed, adding that the protection of jobs continues to remain a priority as businesses are in trouble in many areas.
He said in summary that we have managed to protect jobs, and at present the government appears to be able to keep its promise to create as many jobs as were destroyed by the virus. He also confirmed that this year the performance of the Hungarian economy will decrease, but it will be better than the European Union’s average. He further observed that the government had contributed to the preservation of some 1.4 million jobs with various programmes. ■