Coronavirus – Hungary continues to receive protective gear

Hungary is receiving significant new consignments of protective gear on Saturday, a spokesman of the operative board that coordinates the country’s response to the novel coronavirus epidemic has said.

Róbert Kiss told an online press conference that 193 boxes of surgical masks, 2,000 boxes of gloves and 1,479 boxes of protective clothing, totalling nearly 20 tonnes in weight, are expected to arrive at Liszt Ferenc Airport.

He also said that since the introduction of the restrictions, 75 police reports have been filed in connection with violation of shops’ opening hours. Police have taken action in 22,361 cases connected to curfew restrictions since March 28, issuing 12,324 warnings, imposing 5,200 fines and filing 4,835 reports.

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Starting on Saturday, a government decree enables local councils to introduce stricter local regulations and several towns and villages have indeed imposed such measures, he said. In response to a question, he said the government would be monitoring these measures and it still has the right to make decisions in each case.

He said there was a drop in the number of home quarantines, dropping by 251 to 12,150 from Friday to Saturday.

This trend is expected to continue because an increasing number of home quarantines imposed on people returning from abroad will expire, he added.

Commenting on border traffic, he said delays should be expected in incoming freight transport at Hegyeshalom and outgoing passenger transport at Nagylak.

Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller told the press conference that the number of coronavirus patients getting hospital treatment increased by more than a hundred in recent days. Of the 829 people getting hospital treatment, 60 are on ventilators.

The number of infected people is also growing in care homes for the elderly, with 21 residents of a home in Budapest’s Pesti Road having died of the virus, she said. Laboratory screening of the residents in this home has been repeated, she added.

The operative board is aware of 18 homes where people have been infected, a total of 386 residents and 45 staff members, she said.

Deputy head of the defence operative board Romulusz Ruszin told the press conference that Hungarian soldiers were actively involved in protective efforts against the epidemic. The soldiers have completed disinfecting the Pesti Road care home, he added.

Some 1,000 Hungarian soldiers are stationed abroad in missions and none of them have been infected with coronavirus, he said. In missions where other countries are reducing the number of soldiers, Hungary is doing the same, with a small contingent of Hungarians having returned home from Mali, he addded.

Source: MTI