Breaking news! Stricter travel restrictions come from September in Hungary

Letenye, Hungary. Photo: MTI

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.

Hungarian government hopes to match last year’s employment figures

Hungary’s government hopes to match last year’s employment figures throughout the year, he said..

Gergely Gulyás told a regular press briefing that each European Union member country saw economic recession in the first half of this year but the drop in Hungary was below the European average and this trend is expected to strengthen in the future.

Some 4,460,000 Hungarians held jobs in July, which was 2,600 more than in January but a few tens of thousands behind last July’s figure, he said.

At the same time, the number of registered jobseekers has been decreasing since June 15, he added.

The government has already transferred 1,756 billion forints (EUR 5.1bn) to boost the economy, a measure that has obviously contributed to the “remarkable” employment figures.