Coronavirus – Mayor: Easing restrictions should not be up for political debate

The easing of coronavirus-related restrictions must not be a matter of political debate, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Friday.

“The matter of easing restrictions … is a professional debate that should be decided based on facts,” Karácsony said on Facebook. “It looks like a reopening can go ahead, and my position on this is quite clear,” the mayor said, adding that he had already made recommendations on how to proceed with reopening Budapest.

“There’s a lot we still don’t know about the epidemic, so withholding information in a situation like this is particularly harmful,” Karácsony said.

“We don’t know hospital infection rates, which is in far greater need of an explanation than elderly care homes,” he said.

The government says Karácsony had failed to prepare Budapest-run elderly care homes for the epidemic despite having the powers to do so.

“Half of all fatalities in Europe have occurred in retirement homes, but we haven’t seen countries registering one-third of their cases in hospitals,” the mayor said.

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