Breaking news! More severe Hungarian restrictions on international travel!

On Saturday evening, Magyar Közlöny published many new decrees and decree modifications concerning the pandemic situation. Here are the most important details that likely concern you or someone you know.

Much-awaited news for companies are finally out. The decree ensures entrepreneurs to receive financial support in the form of a wage subsidy for the month of March as well, without having to apply for it separately, writes blikk.hu.

Other decisions like the extension of coronavirus-related restrictions until 16 March and the temporary control on the borders will stay in effect, too.

It seems like the documentation handed out in Hungary verifying your protection against the coronavirus, the so-called

vaccine passport, will not include the type of vaccine its owner received.

The decree says that the company providing the medical assistance is not obligated to pass the information of which type of vaccine was used to inoculate the patient to the government bureau issuing the vaccine passport. It might cause some problems for certain people wishing to travel abroad, though, as some countries have already announced that they will not accept certain vaccines, and the people inoculated with them, as credible and acceptable.

When it comes to business-related travels, new restrictions have arrived. Already at this point,

relatively free travel between countries is only possible if we possess a certain document verifying the business-related objective we travel with.

For this reason, many have created fake papers.

To prevent taking advantage of this loophole, the governmental decree on travel restrictions during the state of emergency has been amended.

A Hungarian citizen leaving the country for an economic or business purpose and wishing to return will be subjected to all restrictions imposed on Hungarian citizens entering Hungary. This means that everyone will be subjected to a medical check-up, but the otherwise 10-day-long quarantine can be avoided with a negative PCR test.

On the other hand,

if they travelled abroad to any of the countries listed below for an economic or business purpose and they can prove so upon returning, entering the country will not be linked to any restrictions.

Here is the list of said groups of countries.

Travelling from Hungary to:

any member state of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA);
a country that is not a member state of the EU or the EEA but has a multilateral agreement with these communities and possesses an equal position to EEA states;
a candidate country to join the European Union;
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;
or to a country previously accepted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the Minister in charge of border control.

When it comes to foreign citizens wishing to enter Hungary, changes are similar. If you travel with a business purpose but suspicion arises concerning the authenticity of the document certifying the objective of your trip, quarantine is applied automatically.

Aside from these decisions, the decree gives authorisation to assigned Ministers to appoint certain countries from where entry is allowed without any further restrictions, making the change on travel restrictions somewhat less harsh.