Breaking news! Stricter travel restrictions come from September in Hungary

Hungary’s government will introduce stricter rules on travelling abroad starting next month, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday.

The operative board coordinating Hungary’s response to the novel coronavirus epidemic will put forward its proposal on the new rules at next week’s cabinet meeting, Gergely Gulyás told a regular press briefing.

Gulyás advised Hungarians against booking trips abroad in September, particularly to southern countries.

He said the reopening of schools was crucial for keeping the country running like normal, adding that this required keeping the number of Hungary’s Covid-19 cases under control.

The pandemic is getting worse in most European countries and stagnating in only a handful of them,

Gulyás said, adding that Hungary was just a few weeks behind the trends seen in other parts of the continent. This, he said, meant that the government was not in a position to relax travel restrictions.

The PM’s Office chief also said that Hungary has updated Norway’s coronavirus classification from “yellow” to “green”, saying that the country’s case numbers were among the lowest in Europe.