BREAKING NEWS – Coronavirus – Orbán announces curfew restriction between March 28 and April 11

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday announced a curfew in Hungary. People are only allowed to leave their homes to go to work or to run essential errands, Orbán said in an interview to public broadcaster Kossuth radio on Friday.

Grocery shops and pharmacies will be open to people above 65 years of age between 9 and 12 every day, he said.

Others will not be allowed in those shops during that period, he said.

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The restriction is a somewhat stricter version of the curfew introduced in the German state of Bavaria, Orbán said, calling the measure “sensible and proportionate”.

Meanwhile, regarding Hungarian economic protection measures, he said: “Now the people come first, not the economy.” At the same time, the government, he said, is already working on a plan to protect and restart the economy, adding that the action plan will be made public in the first or second week of April.

Orbán paid tribute to health-care and law-enforcement staff, and also praised people who work in grocery shops, pharmacies and factories.

“I thank all Hungarians because if there is a war — and this is a war situation — the hinterland matters just as much as the front line,” he said, adding that the country was in an orderly state.

Orbán said the aim was to slow down the spread of the virus. To get rid of it altogeter would require a vaccine, he added.

The aim of the curfew, he said, was to “separate the most vulnerable elderly population from young people in a bearable way”.

Orbán said he expects the curfew to reduce person-to-person contact and in turn, slow the spread of the virus.

The prime minister said protecting doctors was among the top tasks.

Concerning Hungary’s domestic political situation, the prime minister said: “Politics isn’t what we need right now.” Instead, Hungary needs unity, “because the more of us unite, the more lives we can save.” Orban said the current crisis was not about power, but rather human lives.